


How Bad Can I Be?

by Nicoleamy96



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-07-27 17:26:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7627357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicoleamy96/pseuds/Nicoleamy96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ora was in her third year when Harry Potter came to Hogwarts. She was one third of the pranking trio with Fred and George Weasley. However, not everything at Hogwarts is what it seems for Ora. She goes through her years learning shocking truths, meeting new and interesting people and even finding love. OC/Fred</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Day

**Author's Note:**

> Hi anyone that reads this! I'll be using songs within each chapter and I'll reference them at the beginning. I'm an idiot so I find it difficult to fit the lyrics in order through the chapter so they don't flow from one line to the next, they are in a random order of where I feel it makes most sense for them to be.  
> This is my first story so please bear this in mind when you're reading and thinking about how shit it is! I don't really expect many readers but if you do read it please feel free to give any advice on how to improve it :)

The First Day

Song for the chapter – Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

 

“Dammit, I'm late!” Ora shouted in the face of her mother as she woke with a start thanks to her rigorous shaking of Ora's shoulders.

“I know, Ora! There's no time for breakfast, just get ready and get downstairs. We've already got your trunk in the car.” Her mum exclaimed.

Ora couldn't believe she was late to the first thing she was actually excited about all summer – going to Hogwarts! Ora was muggle born so she can't say she's been waiting for this her entire life because she didn't even didn't know that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry even existed but that didn't stop her mum, dad and 9 year old little brother, Walt, from being really proud of her being able to go. In fact, Walt was even more excited than Ora as he was now ecstatic at the idea that he could be in the exact same position as his older sister in two years time!

Ora pulled on her light blue, skinny jeans and a plain black short-sleeved t-shirt over her curvy body, along with a knitted long-sleeved beige cardigan and headed downstairs with a floral backpack swung over her shoulder with her essentials and school supplies inside. She gave her long, black shiny hair a quick run through with her brush and looked in her mirror to make sure she looked presentable. Staring back at her was an 11 year old girl with eyes the colour of coal and long, black hair and a smile playing on her thin lips.

When she reached the bottom stair she sat on it and pulled on her brown lace-up boots and continued walking outside the house making sure she locked the door behind her. She stepped into the car loaded with her trunk and her family who were already sat waiting for her and they set off for King's Cross station.

_W_ _anted to belong here. But something felt so wrong here._

Two and a half hours later, Ora was awoken from her nap in the car to her mum once again having to shake her awake. She noticed she was no longer in her home town of Margate and instead was sat in the car park of St. Pancras station, across from King's Cross.

As they walked across the street to King's Cross, Ora couldn't help but look around at the rush of people going into the station and wonder how many of them were heading to Hogwarts too. When they got into the station, they began looking for platform nine and three quarters and could only find a wall between the two platforms. It was 10:50 and Ora was beginning to worry about getting on the train on time; what if she didn't make it? What if this meant she couldn't go to Hogwarts?

Just as she was about to give up hope, a family nearby were arguing about the time and leaving the house too late and not leaving enough time to get here for the 11am train. This caught Ora's attention because when they arrived in the station, she noticed on the board that there was no other train departing at 11am and so Ora and her family moved towards a woman who seemed like the mother of the family due to her incredible likeness to the children surrounding her.

There was what looked like a mother and a father and 6 children surrounding them; the eldest looking child was 17 years old and was about to begin his last year at Hogwarts. He was short and muscular and had many freckles. The second eldest was thin and tall with the same freckled face as his siblings. The next two were identical twins, they seemed to be quite short and stocky compared to the rest of the family. The younger two children consisted of a boy and girl, the boy looked older, though not too much older and he seemed quite tall for his age and was relatively thin compared to his stockier siblings. And the girl, who couldn't have been older than 8 years old was short and had freckles like her siblings and had long hair and shared a common feature with the rest of the family, they all had bright ginger hair.

Ora's mum stepped further towards her to catch the woman's attention. “Excuse me, miss?” She timidly began conversing with the head of the ginger household.

“Yes dear?” The woman began talking back to Ora's mother.

“I don't suppose you know how to get onto platform nine and three quarters, do you?”

The lady gave a kind smile and then turned towards Ora beaming at her. “Ah, is this your first year at Hogwarts, dear? Yes, well its Fred and George's first year too and Charlie's going into his final year and Percy's in his third. As you can see, Ron and Ginny here aren't old enough to be going yet. I'm Molly and this is my husband Arthur Weasley.” As she said this, she pointed to each person she was talking about in turn. “Are you the first in your family to go to Hogwarts then?” She finally stopped for breath.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Ora replied shyly. She wasn't usually this shy around people but amongst those she had never met before, she found herself unable to speak as freely as she normally would.

“Okay, well I'm sure my boys will make sure you find everything OK, and if you ever need anything, don't be afraid to ask them. Everyone in our family is a witch or wizard so they should be able to help you with regards to any questions you might have.” She finished with a smile.

“Th-thank you.” Ora stammered back. The twins shared an odd look with each other, one of mischief. If only Ora had known what they were like before then, she would've been able to sense that they were up to something.

And with that, Molly Weasley began explaining what to do to get onto the platform and giving her examples of this by allowing the older Weasleys to go ahead of her and then before the twins could through the barrier, Molly insisted the girl, she found out to be called Ora, should go first to ensure that her and her family were able to get onto the platform.

It was now bordering on 11:56 and so there was no time for Ora and her family to wait for the rest of the Weasleys to come through the barrier. Instead, she looked in awe at the magnificent, Victorian looking train called the Hogwarts Express which sounded as though it was getting ready to set off any minute now.

Ora's parents helped her put her luggage onto the train in a compartment that had not yet been taken and then they stepped off the train to be able to say their goodbyes to her. She hugged her parents together as they got emotional at the thought of not seeing her until Christmastime. She moved onto her brother Walter and hugged him so tight it could be believed that she was never coming back. She told them she would write every week, the first letter going out on the Saturday of her first week so she could tell them all about her classes and any friends she had made. They heard the final whistle call and she gave them all one more hug and hurried into the compartment where they had stored her luggage and opened the window to allow herself to shout goodbye to them as the train began moving away from the station.

_Out of the darkness and into the sun. But I won't forget all the ones that I love._

Fifteen minutes into the journey, she heard the door of her compartment slide open as two ginger, identical heads came into the doorway of the compartment and the one she remembered as Fred asked, “Hey there, Ora! Would you mind if we sit in here with you?”

“The other sections are full!” George joined in the conversation.

“S-sure, I don't mind.” Ora muttered and stumbled on the first word.

They lifted their trunks above the opposite seats to her and sat down across from her.

“So, Ora, we noticed that you're really quiet and shy around us-” Fred began.

“But, you seemed talkative when we saw you saying bye to your family!”George finished.

“I wonder why that is?”

“We thought before we were going through the platform that we would try to make you more bold and brash!” George added onto the end of Fred's sentence again. Ora discovered this was a quirk of theirs, to continue the other's sentence.

“But now that we've seen you are like that, just not around new people, we'll just try to befriend you!”

“So, do you want us to be your first friends at Hogwarts?” They questioned together this time.

Ora was taken aback by this. After all, this wasn't the normal way of making friends. One just doesn't go up to someone and straight out say are we going to be friends or not. But for some reason, Ora found this to be a strange but inviting feature of the twins.

“Erm, O-OK!” She seemed to have shouted back.

“Great, now tell us- oh good, the sweet trolley's here!” George began to ask Ora question but was cut off by the idea of food.

“Anything from the trolley, dears?” The trolley witch opened the sliding doors and peaked through it.

Fred and George moved towards her to begin buying food and Ora looked out of the window deciding she didn't want anything to eat just yet. Besides, she had a packed lunch ready, knowing that it could very well be a long journey to Hogwarts.

Within moments, they came back to their original seating positions and began opening Chocolate Frogs but not before handing one to Ora. She looked at it strangely and concluded it had to be just normal frog shaped chocolate and began unwrapping it. When it was fully unwrapped she went to grab it to eat but it hopped away from her and escaped from her her view. She sat back and sighed with a confused look on her face.

“Oh sorry, we should have warned you.” Fred started.

“The frogs do that sometimes. Especially if you don't grab them, fast enough.” George finished.

“Oh, thats… strange. Well, thank you anyway!” Ora replied.

Fred and George looked at each other with smirks plastered on their faces and then turned back to Ora.

“What's wrong?” Ora questioned.

“Oh nothing-” Fred began.

“Its just you must be warming up to us.” George continued.

Fred then added, “You see you've stopped stammering around us.”

Ora then began to think and silently agreed with them, she must feel more comfortable around them now otherwise, as Fred said, she'd still be stammering around them.

“Oh yeah.” She said. “I suppose you seem nice enough, to give me chocolate and help me onto the platform and all...” Suddenly, her facial expression that suggested she was in thought changed into a massive smirk. “That's good then! I wouldn't have been able to step off this train without people there to reassure me.”

Fred and George smiled at Ora and all three of them continued talking for the entirety of the long journey from King's Cross to Hogwarts. And when Hogwarts came into view, none of them said anything as they all had their faces stuck to the window of the train to look at the magnificent sight that was Hogwarts.

When the trio stepped off the train in their robes, which they changed into half way through the journey, they were met with the sounds of a deep, booming, country accent shouting, “Firs' years this way!”

Following the sounds, they looked at the man who made it and Ora's face became shocked but excited as she continued to stare at him.

“Am Rubeus 'Agrid, the gameskeeper o' 'Ogwarts. All you firs' years follow me!” Hagrid shouted to the group of students that had surrounded him.

They followed him to the edge of a lake where Ora could have sworn to have seen a tentacle fly out of. They were told to get into boats which could hold four people in them. Ora asked Fred and George if she could share a boat with them and they immediately agreed while telling her that she must love them already and mocking her about this the entire journey across the Black Lake. The journey was relatively short compared to the train journey and seemed to go fast due to the amount of awe and chatter amongst Fred, George, Ora and a new student they met called Lee Jordan. To Ora, Lee seemed just as mischievous as the twins as they spent the majority of time comparing the pranks that they had pulled on various family members and friends. Ora had little to say on this subject but when the topic changed, she joined in straight away with the new-found confidence Fred and George seemed to have given her throughout the train journey.

 

As they stepped up the stairs in the main building towards to great hall, they were stopped by a woman who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. She wore her black hair in a tight bun and stared down at the student behind her square-shaped glasses as she began explaining that she would come to get them when they were needed in the Great Hall. She then sped off into the hall on her own for ten minutes. Whilst she was gone, Fred and George, who were stood next to Ora, began talking loudly so everyone could hear about the horrible ways that the school used to sort students into their houses.

“They sort you into your house by making you wrestle a troll!” Fred told all those who were listening.

George added, “They see the way that you handle it and judge you based on that!”

After doing their job to thoroughly scare their fellow first years, they turned to each other, smirked and then turned to the front.

Ora knew this feeling too well, she was beginning to have a panic attack. She couldn't breathe but at the same time her breathing rate increased rapidly. One of her coping mechanisms was to put her hands on a flat surface but there weren't any. There was only the floor but she knew that would look weird and she would be even more self-conscious than she currently was.

Fred then looked at Ora and saw the same frightened look in her eyes that the other students now held and her increased breathing rate and turned to George to alert him. George then moved the other side of Ora so that they were both on either side of her and leaned in to her ear and whispered, “Don't worry, Ora.”

Fred put his hand on her shoulder as he also leaned in and muttered “Hogwarts is the safest place you could possibly be so there's no way they'd let us battle a troll. Apparently, they put a hat on your head and the hat somehow manages to sense what house you should be in.”

“Though I've heard its more based on where you'd like to be put.”

George finished their discussion with this revelation as Ora's breathing quickly slowed to a steady speed and she smiled at both of them and said “I wished you'd've included me in that little prank!”

With this, Fred and George shared the same idea, they must let her in on their futures pranks and make her as good a prankster as them.

_Gotta keep moving on, moving on. Fly away, breakaway._

 

When McGonagall returned to the anxious first years, she told them to follow her and then made her way, with them on her heels, to the front of the Great Hall while the older students stared at them and muttered to each other. The sorting ceremony began after McGonagall explained what would happen, much to everyone's shock thanks to Fred and George, and the first person made their way up to the stool to sit on it. The names seemed to be read and sorted slowly to Ora but this might just have been because she wanted it to come and go quickly. This was because she would no longer have to endure being stood at the front of the large room with many eyes staring at the back of her head.

Professor McGonagall read out the name “Fred Weasley” and the sorting hat began talking to him so that no one else could hear their discussion and then shouted “Gryffindor!” before moving onto George Weasley.

They seemed to be having a similar discussion until the sorting hat cried out, “Gryffindor!” again.

When both Fred and George were announced as new Gryffindor's a large amount of clapping and 'woos' could be heard from the house's table.

Ora then began to panic as she was sure her name would be read out next as it seemed to be followed alphabetically.

“Ora Fia Wrenne.” McGonagall shouted.

Ora then quickly made her way up to the stool and sat herself upon it. The sorting hat was placed on her head and she immediately heard it's voice talking to her.

“Ahh, a member of the Wrenne family, I see. Then again there seems to be another side of you. One that would suggest you weren't 100% Wrenne. Anyway, lets see, shall we? What qualities do you possess? Caring, friendly, loyal, perhaps you should be in Hufflepuff.”

And before she could stop herself, she found herself saying to the hat, “But the only friends I've made so far have ended up in Gryffindor.”

“Yes yes, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan, I see.” The hat replied. “Well, just because you're in a different house does not mean you can't be friends with them, after all you'll still see them in classes.” He seemed to pause for a moment to consider something before continuing. “Well, I do see a lot bravery in you too and a great ambition and determination to be more than you are. Well, there's nothing else to it… you must be a… Gryffindor!!”

A large amount of cheering and clapping came from the Gryffindor table and she followed where Fred and George had gone before and sat amongst the cheering students where the twins had saved a seat for her between them.

“Hold on, you saved me a seat? How did you know I'd be in Gryffindor?” Ora questioned the twins.

“Well, we figured if you were brave enough to continue going even after you heard our fibs about the sorting ceremony and after you nearly had a panic attack, we thought it would be a sin if you're bravery for going on didn't win out against any other qualities!” Fred said as he again placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah! You're dead brave to carry on and sit on that stool in front of everyone without having another panic attack!” George added to his brother's reasonings.

“Wow, thanks guys! That's really sweet of you to say.” She replied with a large smile on her face, knowing she had already found two amazing, understanding friends.

_Make a wish. Take a chance. Make a change. And breakaway._

But then, all of a sudden, everything seemed to go quiet in Ora's head as one single thought entered her mind. What did the sorting hat mean when it said she wasn't 100% Wrenne? Was it just because her mother was a Wrenne and her father obviously wasn't? Or was it more than that?

_Something felt so wrong here._

Then, interrupting her thoughts, Professor Dumbledore stood up from his seat in the middle of the long table of teachers and told them who he was and gave a speech about not being allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest and finished the speech by saying, “Let the feast begin!”

As soon as he sat down, a range of delicious looking food sat before them on the long house tables and everyone began digging in. But before Ora felt she could eat, she looked across at the teachers on the front table, feeling someone was watching her from there. She was correct, one of the teachers who had short, greasy black hair and a hooked nose was staring at her. As soon as she had noticed him and looked back, he turned away. This played on Ora's mind a little bit but her stomach growling forced her mind to retreat from the subject and instead she began to eat.

 

When the feast was over, they were dismissed and told to follow the prefects of their house as they would explain everything to them and show them the way to their dormitories where their belongings were already waiting for them. The new Gryffindors hardly said anything to each other as they followed their corresponding prefect, probably at the shock of seeing moving pictures covering the walls of Hogwarts and the ever-changing staircases. They finally reached the outside of a portrait of the Fat Lady which Ora learned to be the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.

“Wheezing warthog.” One of the prefects said to the Fat Lady as she swung open the door and let them inside. “You'll need to remember that, that's the password to the common room and the only way you'll be able to get in.” The prefect finished his speech for the first years and let them discover the common room and dormitories themselves.

Ora, Fred and George settled on a sofa near the fire of the common room and began talking to each other.

“So, that wasn't so bad was it, Ora?” Fred questioned.

“No I suppose it wasn't! Although, you guys made it a lot easier to get through.” She replied with a blush rising on her cheeks as she didn't usually enjoy giving out these compliments to people as it embarrassed her. “So… thanks guys, I appreciate you helping me today.” She finished.

“Don't mention it!” George replied. “We're happy to help in any way we can!”

“However, we have a way you can pay us back for our kind, helpful behaviour today.” Fred continued for George as sly smiles swept across their faces.

“Oh really? And what would that be?” She was now matching their smiles with curiosity.

“You must spend the rest of your Hogwarts existence helping us pull pranks and swearing to never rat us out to the caretaker, Filch or anyone else!” Fred said.

Ora quickly nodded and smiled as they budged closer to each other to discuss the first prank they would pull tomorrow and how they would get away with it.

 

After what seemed like hours of talking and planning, they decided it was time to head to bed. After bidding Fred and George goodbye, Ora climbed the stairs to the girls dormitory and went into her new room where she was met with 4 faces looking at her who she guessed were her new room-mates.

“Hi there! I'm Kimbra Chadwick. What's your name?” One girl came and shook her hand while introducing herself.

“Ora Fia Wrenne.” She replied, taking her hand and shaking it.

The other girls then came over and gave kind smiles to Ora and introduced themselves. She found out the girls were named: Salina Beasle, Felicia Jones, Evonne Lowry and Elle Snelling and they all seemed kind and welcoming to Ora and they talked for well over an hour before the female prefect came and told them to go to sleep. But Ora learned a lot about the girls she was sharing a room with while they were talking.

Kimbra Chadwick was pure-blood and was apparently a distant relative of the notorious Malfoy family, though Ora had never heard of them. She was a short, black, thin girl with straight black, shiny hair and a confident personality. Salina Beasle was also muggle-born like Ora and they shared many muggle interests and hobbies. She was also short but quite stocky and had short blond hair, with kind blue eyes. The other three girls were half-bloods starting with Felicia Jones who was tall and pudgy with brown hair and grey, cold eyes though her personality did not match this and was in fact the opposite, she was very friendly. Evonne Lowry was talkative and quite sly for a Gryffindor and had blazing red, waist-length hair and was average height and curvy. Finally, Elle Snelling had a black pixie cut for hair and was an average weight but was quite short and was just as friendly as the other girls but was a lot more humorous.

Now Ora had met the girls she'd be living with and spending time with in classes, she felt a lot of tension was released from her shoulders as she laid back into her four-poster bed with the curtains closed and began recalling the day, something she always did before she went to sleep. She thought about how kind the Weasley family had been and how much she got along with Fred and George, with her thoughts lingering on Fred a little longer than George as she drifted off to sleep after a successful first day at Hogwarts.


	2. Harry Potter Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two years after the first chapter.   
> Harry Potter has finally returned to the wizarding world. Ora's brother, Walt, is in the same year. Ora is hoping he ends up in Gryffindor to keep an eye on him. But what house will he be in?

Chapter Two – Harry Potter Returns

Song for the chapter – Coming Home by Diddy and Skylar Grey

 

_Two years later (current time)._

“Ora, get up! We're on the last leg again!” Ora's mum shouted in her face.

“Ahh, do I have to?” Ora replied tiredly.

“Of course you do if you actually want to go to school this year! Don't you want to see Fred and George?! Don't forget its your brother's first day too! You don't want to miss the sorting ceremony for him!” Mum pointed out.

This is when Ora began to stir as she realised everything her mum was saying was true. She loved Fred, George and her brother to bits and of course she loved her school and wouldn't miss seeing her brother's face on the train as he first sees Hogwarts for anything.

_I need to get back to the place I belong._

She got up, washed herself quickly and pulled on her high waisted distressed boyfriend jeans and a plain white long sleeved t-shirt. She pulled her backpack over her shoulder and rushed downstairs and pulled on her black and white converse and left the house, locking it behind her. She ran into the car, with everything already loaded once again as they had done the previous two years. The car journey was filled with her brother, Walt's, excited questions about Hogwarts despite her already having answered the exact same questions throughout summer.

 

When they arrived at platform nine and three quarters, Ora immediately spotted the Weasley family thanks to their bright red hair. Suddenly, Ora had an excellent thought about how she would say 'hello' to her favourite twins. She told her parents she would put her and Walt's trunks on the train and after having done as she had promised she crept up behind the twins and shouted “WEASLEYS” incredibly loudly in their ears.

They jumped away from Ora, startled by her sudden presence and shouted, “ORA!” and jumped towards her again and hugged either side of her tightly.

The rest of the Weasley family smiled widely and said 'hello' to her as Ron's eyes opened wide in a scared fashion. Ron had always been a little frightened of Ora ever since she went to stay with the Weasleys for the middle two weeks of the summer holidays (as she had done last year and was told she would be able to continue doing for as long as she liked by Mrs Weasley) after her first year at Hogwarts and thanks to Fred and George, she had opened up a lot more. She was still suffering from her anxiety but as long as they were with her, she felt as though she could do anything, including talking to their family and teasing Ron every chance she got along with the twins. So, although Ron loved Ora like a sister, as did the rest of the Weasley siblings, she still scared him a little.

“So, shall we get on the train, its leaving in two minutes?” Ora asked the Weasley children who were attending Hogwarts that year.

“Yep, we'll just say our farewells-” George began.

“And goodbyes.” Fred finished as they both made overly dramatic interpretations of emotional farewells and began fake sobbing.

Ora rolled her eyes and left them to say their goodbyes and went over to her own family who were now squeezing Walt so tight in a hug, she thought they might have killed him. She pulled him away from them and told them she would look after him and make sure he sent a letter every week, just as she did. They hugged Ora and bid their goodbyes as they got into the compartment Ora had saved for them and waved their hands out of the window at their parents until they were out of sight.

_I'm coming home, I'm coming home. Tell the world I'm coming home._

They then sat down as Fred and George came to join them five minutes later.

“Hiya Walt!” They said together.

Walt beamed at them and said “Hi Fred, George. How's your summer been?”.

Walt had always looked up to Fred and George as he only had an older sister, and as much as he loved Ora, he wished he also had an older brother so they took him under their wings and treated him as they treat Ron. Perhaps even kinder than they treat Ron since they knew Ora would kill them if they even dared try to pull a prank on Walt.

“Well, we started with using dungbombs in Ron's bedroom as soon as we got back, thanks to Ora's suggestion.” Fred ended with a wink in Ora's direction. “Then we got Charlie to hex Percy's books so that they wouldn't open to his touch at all so he couldn't be 'reading ahead to be prepared' as he calls it through the summer.” Fred continued.

“So, whenever he wanted to study, they either didn't open at all or they did but immediately shut on his hand!” George ended the story as they both fell into hysterics along with Walt and Ora. They continued talking about all the pranks they had pulled over the summer on their unsuspecting siblings and once even on their own mother. Ora voiced her impressed views on this as she knew Mrs Weasley had always scolded them for their pranks.

“Oi, Ora. You'll never guess who we just met!” George started.

“Only bloody Harry Potter!” Fred finished.

“You're joking?!” Harry Potter?! I didn't even realise he was the same age as Ron but I guess he must be if this is his first year. Is it true then, does he have the scar?” Ora questioned.

“Well, why don't you see for yourself? He's in the next carriage.” Fred said.

And just as Ora got up to leave she could hear Walt questioning Fred and George on Harry Potter, a subject that Ora hadn't thought of broaching with him. She then left their compartment and headed straight to the one with Harry Potter in but before she could, she saw Ron sat in a section with someone sat across from him and thought she would go and talk to him first and make sure the twins didn't ruin his summer too much.

She slid the door open to Ron's compartment and he turned with a startled look to see her coming in to sit next to him.

“Alright, Ron?” How've you been?” Ora started the conversation.

“I'm alright thanks. Its been difficult trying to dodge Fred and George's pranks all summer but oh well, I'm here now aren't I?” Ron replied.

Ora then turned to his friend who was sat across from them and was listening to their conversation, smiling.

“Hi there, I'm Ora Fia Wrenne. I'm in third year. I'm guessing your a first year?” She questioned the boy who wore round glasses over his bright green eyes and wore baggy clothing.

“Yes, I am. Nice to meet you!” The boy replied.

“Well, if you need anything, just come and find me! I remember the panic I felt in my first year, not just at the beginning but all the way through it so I'll help you any way I can!” Ora beamed at him. “Oh and sorry, I didn't catch your name.” She added.

“That's really kind of you to say, Ora. My name's Harry Potter.” He said as he didn't seem to notice the startled look Ora had given him after he had introduced himself.

“So, its true what Fred and George said then? You're actually here at Hogwarts, finally!” She said. “Anyway, I better go back to my brother, he's just starting this year too so hopefully you guys can be friends!” She then turned to Ron this time and added, “God knows what your brothers are telling Walt now. They better not be sullying his innocent mind.” And with that thought she stormed out of their carriage and almost ran into the door of their compartment due to the speed she was travelling at.

“He seems nice, that Harry Potter.” She said sitting down.

“Well, you have to be when you've spent you're entire life in a cupboard under the stairs. It makes you humble,” George said.

“He lives in a cupboard?!” Ora asked.

“Yeah, but don't go telling people.” George replied.

“We were earwigging.” Fred confirmed Ora's suspicions of how they found out this information.

The train journey was then taken over by various tales Fred and George were telling Ora and Walt about Harry Potter, though a lot of them seemed like lies to Ora.

 

As they pulled into the Hogsmeade station, they got off the train in their robes and Ora gave Walt one last hug before he set off towards the gamekeeper, Hagrid, who was in charge of getting the first years across the Black Lake safely. Ora and the twins set off towards the carriages that seemed to be pulled by nothing, though Ora had been told before that there were creatures there but only those who had seen death could see them. They managed to get a carriage to themselves and they set off towards Hogwarts with Ora eagerly awaiting the sorting ceremony to see what house Walt would be put in. She was hoping it would be Gryffindor so she could keep an eye on him, or Ravenclaw because he was very smart for his age, or perhaps Hufflepuff for the trait both Walt and Ora shared, loyalty. But she hoped it would not be Slytherin. Although she would never discriminate against her own brother just because he was in Slytherin, she would still find it difficult to believe that he wouldn't get mixed up with the wrong sort in that house. These thoughts trailed away from her as the carriages came to a halt outside Hogwarts as they had arrived.

Ora, Fred and George made there way to the Gryffindor table and took seats near the front in anticipation for the new arrivals to their house.

_Lots of ups, lots of downs but made it back._

“So, do you reckon Ron'll be in Gryffindor?” Ora questioned the twins.

“I'm guessing so, Weasleys tend to be.” Fred answered.

“Though we don't mind if he's not. In fact, we'd prefer it.” George said.

“And why is that?” Ora folded her arms.

“We'd see him less!” They answered together while laughing.

“You guys are such dic-” But before she could finish, they were silenced by the arrival of the first years into the Great Hall.

Professor McGonagall began explaining to them what would happen before she began reading out the names. The entire hall listened and waited for someone to be called into their house and when they did, the corresponding table stood up and began heavily clapping and screaming with joy.

Finally the first Gryffindor was announced this year as Lavender Brown and they all stood up and were cheering for her as she sat near Ora. Then came Seamus Finnigan who came bouncing up to the table with a cheeky grin on his face. The next Gryffindors to be announced were Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom who came back to the table still wearing the hat and then had to go back to return it as Ora and the twins laughed and clapped.

Then came the name that Ora immediately recognised: Draco Malfoy. She had heard a lot about the Malfoy family, including Draco and his father Lucius from Kimbra, one of her room-mates, who told her she was distantly related to them and hated it. Ora was told that to the Malfoy family, Kimbra and her parents were classed as 'blood traitors', so the two families did not get along.

A few more names went by until the name that everyone was dying to hear was read out.

“Harry Potter.” McGonagall said.

The Boy Who Lived walked up to the stool and spent a few minutes there until the sorting hat shouted, “Gryffindor!” and the twins and Ora stood up and were boasting “We got Potter! We got Potter!” in sing-song voices.

Harry sat near them and began shaking many peoples hands on the table.

“Well done, Harry!” Ora shouted over the cheering as it began to die down.

Another name was read out before it was Ron's turn. He walked up to the stool looking very pale and waited a moment before it was decided he was to be in Gryffindor. He ran up to the table and sat next to Harry looking very relieved.

“Well done, Ron, excellent!” Percy said to Ron.

“Yeah, congratulations, Ron!” Ora added.

“Yeah, maybe you can follow in Percy the Prefect's footsteps, Ron!” Fred joked.

Ora elbowed Fred as if to tell him to shut up as Ron and Percy looked red in the face.

Then came the name Ora had most been looking forward to hearing throughout the sorting ceremony.

“Walter Pelagius Wrenne.” McGonagall said.

Ora's brother stepped up to the stool and sat down. It seemed to be five minutes before the sorting hat settled on a house to put him in which slightly worried Ora. She hadn't known others to go on this long.

“Slytherin!” The sorting hat shouted.

Ora couldn't have looked more stunned if she had tried. She turned to Fred and George and they were sharing her expression and staring at her too.

“He's in Slytherin?” She muttered with a disbelieving tone to her voice.

_Can't make up for it or conceal it but you deal with it._

She had warned him about Slytherin since she returned home after her first year at Hogwarts. He seemed interested to learn more about them but didn't seem too keen on the way they viewed blood status and how often they seemed to go down the wrong path in life. And the more she thought about it, the more she began to think that somewhere inside Walt, he must have wanted to be in Slytherin. After all, the hat took your opinion into account and if he truly didn't want to be in Slytherin, the hat wouldn't have put him there.

Ora had always known that Walt was cunning and very ambitious but she thought his other qualities might have won out over them.

Walt gave her a happy look as if he hadn't realised she was shocked at the hat's decision and took off towards the Slytherin table.

“Hey, isn't that your brother?” Ron asked Ora.

“Yeah, it is.” She replied, still stunned by this revelation.

“Oh no...” Ron began. “I hate to tell you this, Ora... but he's sat with Malfoy too.”

Ora turned her head quickly and saw them chatting happily together.

_Shit._ She thought. Anyone but Malfoy. Walt was good and kind and she didn't want that to change because he befriended the wrong people.

Dumbledore then stood up and gave a short, funny speech before the food appeared before them and they dug in. Her thoughts about Walt continued throughout dinner and even though Fred and George tried their best to cheer her up and change the subject, she couldn't get it out of her mind.

As Ora ate, she overheard Harry's conversation with Percy which took her mind off Walt for a moment due to the subject of the discussion.

“Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?” he had directed his question to Percy who had responded and they continued talking about Professor Snape for a few minutes until Percy had started talking to a first year sat on his other side.

“I know he looks intimidating, Harry but he's not that bad,” Ora attempted to reassure him. “Well, Fred and George don't like him… in fact loads of students don't like him but he seems nice to me.”

Fred decided this was the right time to voice his opinion on the subject, “That's because he _is_ nice to you, Ora.”

George continued, “He must have a soft spot for you or something. Always treats you better than the rest of us mugs!”

Ora considered this for a while. She never really thought too much about it but suddenly memories of being in Professor Snape's potion class for the past two years entered her mind. Fred and George were right, he did seem to treat her slightly better than the rest.

The feast seemed to go on forever in Ora's mind, perhaps it was because she wanted to talk to Walt after the meal which made it drag on in her mind.

When the plates had all emptied, Dumbledore stood up and gave his usual notices about the forbidden forest, making sure to cast a glimpse at the twins and Ora since he knew they sneaked in there every year. He reached the last notice which was about the third-floor corridor on the right hand side being out of bounds to everyone which had never been imposed before.

Before they could go to their dormitories, they sung the school song which Fred and George chose to sing to the funeral march tune which Ora suspected was to cheer her up. They succeeded in this as she couldn't help but let out snort of laughter after they had finished singing.

They were now all crowding the corridors as the first years scrambled to meet their prefect for the year who took them to their dormitories. Ora could see Walt chatting away with Malfoy and two other boys as they walked away following their prefect and decided she was better talking to him tomorrow.

Fred, George and Ora made their way up to the Gryffindor dormitory along with others in their house and Alicia Spinnet who was in front of them said the password to the Fat Lady, “Caput Draconis”.

They entered and settled themselves on what had become their favourite perch in the common room, four comfy chairs surrounding a table in the corner of the room near a window. This was where the three of them and Lee Jordan often sat and discussed their upcoming pranks.

Lee came over to them and they all began discussing what they had done over the summer, pranks they had come up with and the prospect of having Harry Potter join the Gryffindor house.

Eventually the conversation died down and they decided it was time to go to bed, however Fred and Ora lagged behind for a bit.

Out of no where, Fred filled the silence before Ora could, “So, Walt's in Slytherin”.

This sounded more like a statement than a question but nevertheless Ora responded by saying, “Yes”.

“Are you okay with that?” He questioned again.

“I guess I'll have to be. Its not my decision what house he's in and the people he associates with. I just thought I'd told him enough about Slytherin for him to be weary of the house and the people in it.” She replied.

Fred suddenly stood up and patted her on the back in a sympathetic way before saying, “I'm off to bed.” And turned to leave but as soon as he got to the bottom of the stairs to the boys dormitory, he turned back to Ora. “Don't worry too much about him, Ora. He's a good kid and me and George'll keep an eye on him. Make sure he carries on down the straight and narrow path like us.” He ended with a wink as Ora laughed at the thought of the twins going down the 'straight and narrow path'.

“Thank you,” she said quietly before he left.

She then got up herself and made her way to her room where her room-mates were patiently waiting for her to discuss everything that had happened throughout the summer and the new additions they had to the house.

The talking finally died down as they all closed their curtains to their beds and laid down falling into a state of unconsciousness. But before Ora could sleep she went through the day in her head as she usually did and her thoughts lingered on three things.

Harry Potter first came to mind. She wondered whether now Harry Potter was back in the wizarding world, would Voldemort attempt to become stronger again to seize another chance to kill him? Would Hogwarts be safe from him?

The next thought was for her younger brother. How did he end up in Slytherin? Why didn't he heed her warnings? Were him and Malfoy going to be friends? What would she say to him tomorrow?

Her final thoughts were for Fred. It was great to see the twins again and she appreciated the way they tried to cheer her up through dinner. Her heart suddenly began to race when she though of the way Fred had talked to her before he went to bed. The soothing tone he used, the pat on the back for reassurance and the kind look he gave her when she thanked him. And with that being her last memory of the day, she turned on her side and began snoring after a short while.

_I'm back where I belong, yeah I never felt so strong._


	3. Snape's Curiosity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape acts differently with Ora than with the other students. She wants to know why but her mind is on Fred and George instead.

Chapter Three – Snape's Curiosity

Song for the chapter – My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson

 

Ora woke up with a start after a nightmare of her brother and Malfoy picking on Gryffindors as they walked passed them in a corridor and when Ora saw and ran over to them to tell them to stop, Walt looked at her and said he no longer had a sister. This immediately put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day and it only darkened when she met Fred and George in the common room before going to breakfast and they were talking about the sorting last night.

“What are you going to say to him?” Fred questioned Ora.

She sighed and said, “I don't know. What should I say? Should I even say anything? I mean, he's been looking forward to coming to Hogwarts since I started and I don't want to ruin it for him by slandering his house.”

“True,” George started. “But if you don't say anything to him and then something bad happens, you'll regret it.”

Ora agreed and decided she would find him during breakfast and ask to talk to him privately.

They had just reached the Great Hall and found seats near Ron, Harry and Hermione when Ora began looking around for Walt.

She found him minutes later, sat between Malfoy and Blaise, talking to them.

“He's there. I'm going to talk to him while I have the chance since I won't be seeing him in the Gryffindor common room any time soon.” Ora made the snide remark to Fred and George before deciding she had worked up the courage to go over to the Slytherin table.

She approached him quickly and saw him look up from his conversation with Malfoy and Blaise to turn his attention to Ora.

“Hey Ora!” He said happily as if nothing was wrong.

“Hey Walt. May I have a word with you?” She replied.

“Sure,” and with that, he stood up and followed her to the doors of the Great Hall so none of his friends would hear what she was saying.

She suddenly seemed lost for words and unable to say any of the things she had planned to say to him in her head.

“I know what you're going to say,” Walt began as Ora gave a startled look at him. “I'm fine here in Slytherin. I know its only been one night but I've made loads of friends already and they're really similar to me. I don't think I would've got along with the Gryffindors as much.” He finished.

“Is that what you were thinking then? You know, when you were being sorted?” Ora began her inquisition to Walt. “Because all I could think of last night was how you must have wanted to be in Slytherin otherwise the sorting hat wouldn't have put you there-” Ora was cut off by the sound of genuine laughter from her brother who was now holding her shoulder in reassurance.

“Listen Ora, I know you're just trying to look out for me but stop worrying! I'm in Slytherin, so what? I don't care, in fact I was interested in being in that house so I guess that's why the sorting hat put me there. I know you too well and to answer some questions that have no doubt been flooding your mind, yes I'm happy in Slytherin. Yes, I'm friends with Draco. Yes, he's nice to me. No, I don't join in with his bullying and hurtful comments. And finally, I'll still spend loads of time with you! We can catch up like this every morning if you want!” He stopped to breathe but before he could say anything else Ora cut in this time, “Okay, okay! If you're happy, I'm happy. Just watch your back in that house, okay? And don't turn into one of them, alright? If I hear you've been picking on people or you start having a blood complex, I'll disown you.” Walt chuckled and they hugged but before they could return to their tables, Ora had one more question for Walt, “Hold on, does Malfoy know you're muggle-born?”

“I don't know, it hasn't really been brought up. He spends more time talking about his own dad than bothering to ask about anyone else's parentage.”

“Okay, well, I'd keep it to myself if I were you. And just hope he doesn't mention you to his father because he'll certainly know you're muggle-born.”

They walked back to their corresponding tables and when they reached them, Malfoy stood next to the Slytherin table as if waiting for Walt and Ora to return.

He stuck out a hand and said “You must be Ora Fia Wrenne, Walt's sister?”

She decided to shake his hand since Walt seemed to like him, “Yes, and you're Draco Malfoy?”

“Yes, I am. I've heard a lot about you from Walt. You're a Gryffindor?”

Ora nodded and Malfoy seemed to give a look of disapproval but his face quickly changed into his charming smirk, “Don't worry too much about your brother, I'll look after him.”

For some reason, this did not ease Ora's mind at all, in fact it seemed to make it worse for her. But she figured it would not be a good idea to voice her opinion on the matter and instead chose to say a forced thank you to him and a worried goodbye to Walt.

“You're finally back!” Fred squeezed up to make a seat for Ora on the bench.

“Yeah, I didn't get to say much to him. He kinda already knew what I was gonna say and beat me to it.”

“Figured.” George replied.

“But I guess I shouldn't dwell on it. I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing and Malfoy reckons he's going to 'look after him'.” She said the last part of her sentence with derision. The twins cracked up at the thought of Malfoy looking out for anyone but himself as the bell rung out to tell them they should be on their way to lessons.

 

The trio had divination to start the first day of lessons which made Ora, Fred and George very happy. This was because they often goofed off in this lesson as not one of them enjoyed the guesses that Trelawney made about the future. As they crawled their way into the room from the trap door and took seats on a table with three chairs, Trelawney began talking in a dreamy voice about interpreting dreams.

“Any dreams recently, Fred?” George whispered.

“Just the one about jumping about of the window in divination. Any idea what that could mean?” Fred replied in a hushed voice.

_Being with you is so dysfunctional._

Ora began laughing which caught Trelawney's attention as she walked towards their table.

“Something funny, dear?” She said in an angry sounding voice.

“No, professor, we're just comparing dreams.” Ora replied, trying to stifle her laughing. However, professor Trelawney didn't seem to notice her continued giggles and instead looked impressed that they were discussing their dreams.

“Excellent, excellent!” She shouted. “Well since you have already started, you may as well continue. Everyone, open your books to page 96 and begin decoding your most recent dreams!”

She lingered around Ora's table a little longer to hear her dreams.

Fred and George rested their faces on their hands in synch and stared at Ora with smirks.

“So, Ora, come on! Tell us what you've been dreaming about!” Fred said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

“Yeah, anything interesting been happening in your unconscious mind recently?” George added with the same twinkle.

“Erm...” Ora began to think. She didn't want to tell them her dream she had had last night, it was a private matter. So, instead she chose to tell them her dream she had last week.

“Well, I did have a dream on Wednesday about coming back to Hogwarts but there were only four people there when I entered the Great Hall.”

“Yes, yes, dear! Who were they?!” Trelawney looked incredibly interested at this point.

This was the part Ora stumbled on as she didn't want Fred and George to know she had been dreaming about them as they would tease her until her last day at school if they knew.

“Err, well, my brother was there sat on a table next to the fireplace. And Fred and George were there. They were sat on the Gryffindor table.” Then she seemed to mutter the next part since she had a feeling that Fred and George would find this highly amusing, “And professor Snape was sat next to my brother on the other table.” She finished.

“I see, I see! Very insightful, my dear, very insightful!” She kept repeating this statement. “And tell me Wrenne, your brother, he has been sorted into Slytherin, has he not? And you're in Gryffindor?” She started as she stared intently at Ora, “You foresaw it, dear! Do you see? You saw your brother sat at a different table, showing you that he was to be put in a different house! Perhaps the Weasleys being there is because they'll be there for you when you are struggling with a problem professor Snape will cause for you?!” She seemed to question this.

“Err, yeah, sure.” Ora said, clearly unconvinced that she had 'foreseen' the events that had took place at the sorting ceremony.

Fred and George looked like they were about to crack up at the idea that Ora had had some sort of dream premonition about her brother and Snape.

“Professor, what do you think will happen with Snape?” Fred asked, pretending to be interested when really he just wanted more leverage to make fun of Ora with.

“Maybe she messes up a potion?!” George gave an answer dramatically.

“Give it a rest, guys.” She said as she got embarrassed because Fred and George's outburst began attracting the attention of the rest of the class.

“My dear, have you ever considered a career in divination when you finish school?” Trelawney said this part seriously.

“No, I've always wanted a career as a professor here.” Ora replied.

“Teaching divination?!” Trelawney excitedly questioned.

“No, defence against the dark arts.” She answered.

“Oh… oh no, dear. Not another talented student gone to waste...” She trailed off as she finally walked away from the trio's table and onto someone else's.

Fred and George spent the rest of the time making fun of Ora and Trelawney when she wasn't stood near the table attempting to convince her to take divination further.

 

When the lesson was finally over, they had study of ancient runes, transfiguration and then potions with Professor Snape which Ora was not looking forward to thanks to the trouble the twins would give her over her dream about him.

The students had settled down in their seats with Fred, George and Ora sitting together at the back of the room when Snape entered.

“Quiet down.” He said sternly.

The room suddenly went silent and Snape waved his wand towards the blackboard and writing appeared on it, giving instructions on how to make a shrinking solution. They were to study further into this potion after the first lesson and then try it again after they had studied the ingredients and what it was used for and Snape didn't look too pleased at the prospect of the class making this potion.

“Follow these instructions and I will circle the room ensuring you are doing it correctly and aren't attempting to purposefully blow it up.” Snape gave a sly look towards Fred and George at this point as they constantly did this just to cause Snape anguish.

Ora managed to get the first step wrong which amused Fred and George but caused Snape to look disapprovingly at her.

_I know that I've got issues, but you're pretty messed up too._

“Miss Wrenne, you seem to have only added the blood of one Shrivelfig and then stirred it quickly instead of adding the blood of two and stirring slowly.”

Snape said with his lips pursed.

Ora could hear George whispering to Fred, “Maybe this is finally the day that Snape loses it with her!”

But he was wrong. Instead Snape waved his wand over Ora's cauldron which caused it to empty and told her to ensure she added the blood of two Shrivelfigs this time and stir it slowly.

This did not shock Ora, Fred or George as she always seemed to slip by Snape's brutal punishments whenever she did anything wrong. In fact, Fred and George seemed quite disappointed that he had not shouted at her for messing her potion up.

“Ah well, maybe next time.” Fred added with a wink in Ora's direction as she sneered at them for wanting her to get into trouble.

 

After defence against the dark arts, Fred, George and Ora went to the Gryffindor common room to attempt to do the homework that professor Snape had set them.

“I don't know why you even bother with potions homework, Ora.” Fred started, “You could write 'Snape's a git' on it and then set it on fire in front of him and he'd just ask you to do it again.”

“Its true, Ora. You're the teacher's pet in potions. And it doesn't even matter that you're terrible at it. As long as Snape's the one teaching it, you could get away with murder.” George finished.

“Shut up, guys. I'm trying to concentrate.” Ora felt her face flush with embarrassment as she tried to focus on her homework which was nearly complete.

“Why?” Fred began.

“Is it because you want full marks from your buddy?” George added.

“I think it is, George. She doesn't want to disappoint her mate, Snape, does she?” Fred said.

At this, Ora got to her feet and put her essay for potions in her backpack as she had finished it and without a word to the twins, walked up to her room.

She didn't know why she was so annoyed at them. She knew she was overreacting but it hurt her when it came from them. Maybe it was because Fred was saying it all? It wasn't easy for her to hear her crush making fun of her.

_Maybe I was wrong for trying to pick a fight._

Kimbra was already in there reading a book as Ora stormed over to her bed and shoved her backpack onto the floor and laid back onto her pillow.

“You okay, hun?” Kimbra tentatively asked Ora.

“Not really.” She answered.

Kimbra looked at her as if to question what was wrong.

“Fred and George.” Ora replied to her silent question.

“Suprise suprise.” Kimbra said sarcastically, “what have they done this time?”

“They're just going on about Snape yet again. Though now they have more material cos I had to tell professor Trelawney about my dream last week which unfortunately included him.” Ora filled Kimbra in on the whole 'foreseeing' fiasco that Trelawney had started in the lesson and then about the dream. Kimbra found it hard not to laugh at the idea of Snape being in her dream until Ora gave her an annoyed look and her facial expression suddenly changed to one of seriousness.

“Anyway, she reckons something will happen with Snape that Fred and George will protect me from and they said it would probably be that I finally get into trouble with him. But something tells me they wouldn't protect me from that, in fact they'd encourage it-” Ora got cut off from her story when she heard shouts and screams from downstairs. Kimbra and her ran downstairs to see what the commotion was about.

When they reached the bottom step to the girls dormitory, Kimbra and Ora fell onto the floor laughing loudly at the site they saw.

Laying out on the floor in pain were Fred and George as they were arguing about what a stupid idea it was which Ora was in the dark about.

Her and Kimbra managed to pull themselves together and stood up, helping Fred and George in the process.

“What idea was stupid?” Ora questioned with a smile still on her face.

“Well, when we finished our homework we thought we'd come and see you.” George began.

“You seemed mad at us and we wanted to apologise.” Fred finished looking down at his feet.

_Guess this means you're sorry. You're standing at my door._

“Well, thank you for the apology but that doesn't explain why you were sprawled out on the floor.” Ora replied.

“We've never tried to go to the girls dormitory before and we won't be trying again.” George said, rubbing his back where he had fell.

“When we tried to go up the stairs, they went flat and we slid down them.” Fred finished.

This made Ora and Kimbra laugh even harder than before and Ora spoke to them through her laughter, “You idiots! Haven't you read any of the books we were meant to read in _first_ year?! Boys aren't allowed in the girls dormitory, a hex has been put on it so boys can't get in there!” She finished laughing at their gloomy faces.

Finally finding sympathy for them since they were coming to apologise, she said, “Come on, lets to go dinner. Maybe that'll put a smile on your faces.”

Fred and George followed Ora and Kimbra as they went down to the Great Hall and they cast a smile at each other as they had managed to make Ora smile and laugh after hurting her which was their ultimate aim. Of course they had read _Hogwarts: A History_ which had the tidbit in about the dormitories. They had to if they wanted to know where the hexes were in the castle and therefore where they couldn't pull pranks. They just knew it would cause a commotion which would make Ora come downstairs and spot them laying on the floor which would cheer her up.

_Guess this means you take back all you said before._

As they reached the Great Hall, Fred, George and Kimbra went to sit down at the Gryffindor table but before Ora could follow, Walt ran up to her and hugged her before beginning to tell her about his day.

“We had potions today! It was amazing! We were learning about the cure for boils and professor Snape said we could even try it next week! Oh and he was asking about you.” Walt finished waiting for Ora's reaction.

“Wait, Snape was asking about me? What did he ask?” She questioned.

“Nothing important. He just wanted to know how you were doing in your other classes. Oh, and he asked how you were liking school.” Walt replied.

“Oh right. What did you tell him?” Ora asked another question.

“Just that you loved Hogwarts and studied hard in all your classes. I thought it was weird that he was asking about you but I wondered if he was just trying to get to know the families of those who are in his house.” Walt said.

“Yeah, I suppose that could be it.” Though, Ora doubted this very much as Snape never seemed to care about things like how people were, even if they are in his house. “Anyway, what else did you have today?”

Walt then went on to tell her everything that had happened through the day and answer any questions she had for him about his first day of lessons. He then asked her how her day went and she told him and then they went back to their own tables but not before Malfoy spotted her talking to Walt and gave her one of his trademark smirks.

“Was Malfoy actually smiling at a Gryffindor then?!” Kimbra asked.

“Yeah, I think he's just trying to reassure me that he's looking after Walt but I doubt that he is.” Ora said.

Ora decided not to fill her friends in on Snape asking about her as she knew they would tease her again. She was finally able to settle down and begin eating the amazing food that was in front of her before the plates cleared and they made their way back to their respective common rooms.

Fred, George, Lee and Ora went to sit on their favourite table next to the window and began talking about the lessons they had tomorrow. They had similar classes to what they had today but they had the added bonus of the care of magical creatures class which they always looked forward to.

Eventually, people began leaving the common room to go to bed and Lee and George had filed out with them. Fred and Ora were still sat in the same places and were talking about how they should prank Filch soon. Ora began yawning and stood up as if to show she was going upstairs. Fred then stood up after her and said, “I am sorry, you know, about us making fun of you today.”

“Don't worry about it, you guys always make fun of me and I you so I'm used to it.” Ora said, smiling warmly at Fred which gave him goosebumps.

_Cause we belong together now._

“I know we do and its all in fun but today we went too far. I mean George told you you were terrible at potions and I said you were best friends with Snape which is just the worst insult I could possible give.” This made Ora laugh which warmed Fred up inside so much that his goosebumps were gone.

Ora then stepped forward towards Fred and hugged him. Fred looked startled but then moved his arms to hug her back and smiled into her shoulder.

_Forever united here somehow._

“Anyway, goodnight.” Ora said.

“Don't let the bedbugs bite!” Fred said back.

Ora walked upstairs and into her room where she filled in the girls in her dorm about what had just happened. They all said 'oooo' as if it was some sordid secret and were asking her whether she like him.

“Of course I like him! He's a great friend!” Ora replied trying to act as though she didn't know what that question truly meant.

“You know what we mean!” Salina said as she was brushing her long, blond hair away from her blue eyes.

“I think you dooo!” Elle said in a sing-song way.

“Tell us! Tell us!” Felicia shouted.

“Fine, I kinda like him as more than friends but he doesn't like me like that.” Ora finally admitted after three years of crushing on Fred.

“I don't know, you should see the way Fred looks at you!” Evonne added to the conversation.

“He looks at me like everyone else does.” Ora said with furrowed eyebrows.

“If we all looked at you like that, you'd be spoilt for choice.” Kimbra said as she laughed at her own joke.

“What do you mean 'spoilt for choice'?” Ora questioned.

“Well, if we all looked at you with the lovey-dovey eyes that he gives you then you'd have to pick between a lot of people.” Evonne replied.

“He doesn't look at me like that! Anyway, I'm done talking about this, he doesn't like me that way and that's that. Anyway, goodnight girls!” Ora shouted.

“Night Mrs Fred Weasley!” Elle shouted while the girls all laughed including Ora.

As Ora laid down she began thinking about the day she had had.

Why was Snape asking about her? Did she even have anything to worry about with Walt or could he handle everything himself? Was Malfoy as bad as he seemed? And her final thoughts rested on Fred Weasley yet again. She began to wonder when she would get over this crush that had already lasted three years and when her daily summary would stop being about him. Did he like her in that way? Is what the girls were saying true? How would she even find out if he liked her? And as she began to think of scenarios that could lead to Fred telling her he liked her, she drifted off to sleep. Little did Ora know that Fred was in the boys dormitory thinking the exact same thing about her.

_My life would suck without you._


	4. Blood, Sweat and Muggle-borns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People begin finding out the Wrennes are muggle-borns and it is not received well, especially for Walt.

Chapter Four – Blood, Sweat and Muggle-borns

Song for this chapter – Mean by Taylor Swift

 

Ora woke up on Thursday to the sounds of Felicia complaining to Elle about how they had two potions lessons today. Ora didn't mind this though, not just due to the fact that professor Snape treated her well in his lessons, but because she genuinely enjoyed potions and the teasing from Fred and George about Snape had finally stopped so she was able to concentrate fully on what he was saying. This brought a happy feeling to Ora as she remembered Tuesday's potions class which was the day after her and Fred had a heart to heart. George began teasing Ora as soon as Snape had walked into the room but Fred elbowed him and told him they had gone too far which made George think about what he had said the day before and agreed and stopped making fun of her.

Ora got up and put her uniform on and added some make-up to her usually natural face, feeling like it was a good day to put make-up on.

“Ooo, looking fine!” Kimbra shouted at her while she was sitting on her bed styling her hair as she looked at Ora.

Ora winked at her and said, “thanks, Kimbra! You're not looking too bad yourself.”

“Trying to impress someone, are we?” Evonne questioned from the bathroom with a tone that suggested she was smirking.

“I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about!” Ora replied to her as she stepped out of the girls dormitory and began descending the stairs to the common room.

“Hey Ora! Sleep well?” George questioned clearly not noticing anything different about her.

“Morning! Yeah, no more dreams thankfully!” She said attempting to lighten the tiring morning.

Fred didn't say anything for a few minutes and just stared at Ora's face.

“Can I help you?” Ora asked jokingly.

“S-sorry!” Fred said as he looked away with red appearing on his cheeks.

George cast a smirk to Fred which he in turn ignored and they all made their way to breakfast.

Walt came over to the Gryffindor table when he saw Ora had sat down.

“Morning!” He shouted in her ear.

“Oh hi, Walt! How are you?” She asked.

“I'm great thanks! We've got our first flying lesson today! And we're with the Gryffindors!” He added as he looked away from Ora and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione. “Are you guys excited?”

“Yeah, ecstatic.” Ron replied in a sarcastic tone.

Ora shot him a look that suggested he should change his answer very quickly.

“I mean I can't wait to fly. Its just that we're with you guys. And as great as you are, Walt, I can't say the same for your friends.” Ron added.

“Aw, they're not that bad! Besides, us Slytherins are in the same position as you guys when it comes to flying. Plus, Madame Hooch is neutral so she's unlikely to take points away from Gryffindors for simply breathing, unlike Snape.” Walt joked.

“Yeah, I guess.” Ron said unconvinced.

Walt then spent a little more time with Ora and her friends and talked about what he had coming up that day and asked her what she had before he said his goodbyes and went back to the Slytherin table.

“Remind me again how Walt got sorted into Slytherin?” Harry questioned Ora.

“Not a clue. He told me he was interested in being in the house and he's quite cunning and determined so I guess that's why.” Ora responded while she shrugged her shoulders.

She didn't want to worry about Walt being in Slytherin anymore. He seemed to have a handle on things and she wanted to show him that she trusted him to take care of himself.

When the plates of food disappeared, Ora heard the bell to signal the first lesson was about to begin and they rushed off to history of magic.

Ora kept yawning all the way through this lesson. Although she loved history when she was in primary school, she somehow seemed to find wizard history to be quite boring. Which is quite strange because she usually found this to be the opposite and that normal subjects were made better when magic was added to the curriculum.

She looked around and saw more bored faces showing she clearly wasn't the only one that wished she could be in bed at the moment instead of in this lesson.

While she was looking around, she noticed that some of the Slytherins in the room were staring at her and chatting amongst themselves. She didn't know why though. Perhaps it was the addition of make-up to her face. But they were looking at her with disgust and hatred which confused Ora even more. She decided, however, to let it go for now. If they had a problem with her, she would probably find out soon enough. After all, Slytherins didn't keep these things to themselves; if they disliked her for some reason, they would ensure she knows about it.

_You, with your words like knifes and swords and weapons that you use against me._

History of magic seemed to go on and on until finally they heard the bell that showed it was time for the next lesson which was potions with the Slytherins again which meant there would only be more staring and muttering.

When they arrived in the potions classroom, the talking and looking began again. Fred and George noticed now too as they looked at her and searched her as if looking for something that would grab the students attention as much as it had. They apparently couldn't find anything as they shared a confused look with each other and then back at Ora.

“What are they all talking about?” She asked them hoping they knew the answer.

“I don't know but its pissing me off.” Fred said casting dangerous glances to those who were looking at Ora as if daring them to even blink in her direction again.

“Just ignore them, I'm sure they'll stop soon.” George added more calmly than Fred.

_You have knocked me off my feet again. Got me feeling like a nothing._

At this moment, Snape walked into the classroom and towards the front of the room waving his wand as he always did towards the board to make the writing appear on it.

“Copy the subject title down and the sentences I have wrote on the board.” He said sternly.

As he waited for the students to have done as he said he also noticed the stares people in his house were giving Ora and looked at her in the way Fred and George had but seemed to have found nothing noticeable about her to warrant the staring and pointing.

“Eyes to the board and copy these ingredients and their uses in potions.” Snape instructed.

They had copied everything down off the board and Snape said, “Now turn to page 231 and discuss with the people you're sat with, the use of the shrinking solution.”

Ora, Fred and George began talking about the potion when suddenly a Slytherin boy who was sat on the row in front of them turned to her and revealed the reason everyone was looking at Ora, “Oi, Wrenne! Is it true that you're parents are muggles?” He said with a repulsed look on his face. It was this point that Ora wished Snape wasn't marking homework at his desk so he could hear this discussion but then thought different. He wouldn't do anything, in fact he probably thinks the same as the rest of the Slytherins on the matter of blood.

“Yeah, so what?” She said calmly.

The class had now all turned to look at her with the Slytherins sniggering about this revelation.

The boy that had asked her the question thought he'd make the situation worse for Ora by continuing this discussion, “Did you think it would make you look better? Covering up your filthiness with that mess you call make-up?”

_You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard calling me out when I'm wounded._

At this comment, Fred was about to stand up and hit this boy but stopped before he could when Ora placed her hand on his and he settled down.

“That's rich coming from someone who could do with make-up to cover up that ugly face but isn't using it.” George said to make Ora feel better about the situation. However, it seemed to only make things worse for her as he turned fully on his seat and moved it towards her.

“You mudbloods are sickening. I can't wait for someone to wipe you all out.”

_You, picking on the weaker man. Well, you can take me down with just one single blow._

“HORARTIO RUBACK YOU ARE TO GO TO THE HEADMASTER IMMEDIATELY!” Snape was stood directly behind the boy Ora now knew as Horatio Ruback and shouted at him.

This put everyone in the classroom in shock as no one had ever heard Snape shout this way before. He usually got to people through giving them insults through a quiet, disturbing voice that made you feel worse about getting into trouble. This was very different to his usual way of punishment as well since he usually liked to take matters into his own hands as opposed to sending them to professor Dumbledore. He often embarrassed them in front of the class and then gave them detention.

Horatio almost fell off his seat at the shock that Snape had given him, scrambled to his feet and pretty much ran to the door of the room and shot out of it instantly. Ora hadn't seen anyone look so scared.

_Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me and all you're ever gonna be is mean._

She looked up at Snape as he looked at the door that Horatio had just gone through with anger in his eyes as if he was still stood there. He finally took his eyes away and got himself together to be able to tell the class to continue their work as he walked back to his desk, sat down and continued to mark the stack of homework.

Fred and George wanted to say something to Ora but decided against it, as had the rest of the class thinking it was stupid to even mutter a word since they didn't want to attract Snape's attention.

An hour had passed and potions had finally finished after what seemed like ages to the entire class due to the awkward situation they were in. Just as everyone was leaving and Ora, Fred and George made it to the door, Snape shouted her, “Ora, I wish to speak to you before you leave.”

Fred and George left the room and told Ora they would tell professor McGonagall in transfiguration why she was late.

Ora walked up to Snape's desk and he stood up and she waited for him to talk first.

“I wanted to ask if Ruback had said anything else to you before I came over to his desk.” Snape asked.

“Just some slur about covering my face with make-up to cover up the filthiness.” She replied.

Snape looked ready to shout again at this, “Okay, I will make sure professor Dumbledore is aware of that as well.”

“Okay. May I go to class now, professor?” Ora asked without wanting to sound rude but she found she wanted this conversation to be over and to get away from that classroom.

“Yes, miss Wrenne, you may leave.”

As Ora was walking towards the door, Snape gave one more comment to her, “I hope you don't take anything he says too seriously; its astounding he can even say anything with only two brain cells left. Don't take it to heart. And if he says anything to you again, let me know and he will deal with my wrath instead of Dumbldore's. And he will find I am a lot less forgiving.”

Ora was incredibly grateful for this statement as it immediately made her feel ten times better than before. The head of the Slytherin house had actually sent one of his own to the headteacher and then basically called him stupid and threatened him all because of one stupid, hurtful comment he made to a Gryffindor.

Ora turned back around and opened the door ready to leave but then looked back at professor Snape who was still looking at her with sympathetic eyes and she said, “thank you, professor. I appreciate what you've done today.” And with that, she headed out of the door and went towards transfiguration.

Transfiguration was difficult to get through as clearly the news of what had happened had worked its way to professor McGonagall who talked to her for the first ten minutes of the lesson and reassured her he wouldn't get away with what he'd said. Ora was appreciative of this.

The next lesson they had was potions again and instead of having to go there, an owl came to the window of McGonagall's classroom and handed her a note from Dumbldore saying he wanted to see Ora in the next period.

Ora was happy that she didn't need to go to potions again, not only for the fact that Ruback would be there but also because she figured Snape would still be angry and she didn't want to do anything wrong and have him shout at her this time.

Knowing that Ora wouldn't have known this year's password to get to Dumbledore's office, McGonagall came with her and seemed to be ensuring that she got there without hassle from anyone else by the stern looks she was giving anyone that dared even look at Ora.

“Chocolate frogs.” McGonagall said to the large stone bird protecting Dumbledore's office.

It began turning and steps appeared. “Just walk up the steps and its the first door you see.” And with that, McGonagall walked away from Ora and gave her a supportive pat on the back.

Ora walked up the steps and knocked on the door of professor Dumbledore's office.

“Come in.” She heard the headmaster call.

She walked in as Dumbledore smiled at her and summoned her with his hand to sit on the seat in front of his desk.

“Miss Wrenne, I'm afraid to say I prefer seeing you when you are in the company of Mr and Mr Weasley after one of your pranks.” After saying this Ora laughed slightly and Dumbledore gave her a warm smile. “As you know, Mr Ruback was sent to my office earlier today after he made an inexcusable comment to you about your blood status. I wish to hear first hand from you what was said.”

Ora then went on to tell him exactly what had happened.

“I see.” Dumbledore paused for a moment between his sentences, “I called your brother in to see me after I had dealt with Mr Ruback to make sure a similar situation had not happened to him.”

Ora then sat up looking frightened. She hadn't even thought of Walt. It would be worse for him, he had to sleep in the same room as people who wouldn't think well of him for being muggle-born.

“Do not worry, it seems your brother is more than capable of taking care of those who have said anything to him in his own way. He told me that he had left breakfast this morning before the owls had arrived with the post. Apparently Mr Malfoy had told his father about his new friends in his last letter and Mr Lucius Malfoy replied this morning telling his son of the Wrenne sibling's blood status. Needless to say, Draco Malfoy took it upon himself to tell the rest of Slytherin house about this. He has not yet talked to Walt directly about this but others have and unfortunately the comments have not been friendly as you can imagine.”

_You, with your switching sides and your wildfire lies and your humiliation._

Dumbledore waited a minute to allow Ora to take all this information in and then continued, “I just wanted to see you to ask you about the events in potions and to let you know about your brother. Unless you have anything to discuss with me, you may go to the library for the rest of the day.”

“But professor, go to the library? I'm supposed to be in potions now and I have defence against the dark arts and care of magical creatures today?” Ora said quizzically.

“Yes, but I didn't think you'd want to be in potions a second time today after what has happened and I can't imagine you would want to be in other lessons either.” He replied.

Ora was suddenly very glad to have a headmaster like Dumbledore, “thank you, professor.” She stood up ready to leave and then remembered something Dumbledore had said and questioned him on it. “Professor, you said Walt had his own way of dealing with the people who said anything bad to him. What was his way?”

“Well, you see his fist seems to have connected with Mr. Crabbe's nose after a horrid comment he had said to Mr. Wrenne.”

Ora tried her hardest not to look proud of her brother for giving Crabbe what he deserves and Dumbledore smiled slightly and continued, “Of course, I won't be punishing him as not only was he provoked, he was also standing up for something worth fighting for: equality of the blood lines.” And with that he winked and said goodbye to Ora and she descended the steps and went to the library to do homework.

The rest of the day seemed to go quite fast since Ora's attention was on homework and not the day's events.

“Guess who!” Fred asked as his hands closed over her eyes from behind her as he shouted in her ear.

“Erm, Percy Weasley?” Ora joked.

Fred's hands were then removed from her eyes as he sat next to her with a thud, “how dare you, Ora? You know that's a terrible insult.”

This made Ora laugh as she looked around for his twin, “where's George?”

“Oh, he's gone to find a book, I can't remember what it was though.” Fred began, “anyway, how are you?” His voice turned serious and concerned.

“I'm fine, there are just some douche-bags in this world. I thought something like this might happen,” Ora responded.

“Well, I'm sorry it did happen. Try not to let it cloud your view of all pure-bloods.” Fred said as he didn't want Ora to think differently of him.

“I won't. You guys are my best friends and I've never met a more blood-traitory family.” Ora said winking at Fred and making up her own word.

This made Fred laugh, “anyway, it's almost time for dinner, you coming?”

“Yeah, I need to find Walt and make sure he's okay.” Ora answered.

They waited until George rejoined them and then made their way to the Great Hall while Ora told the twins about Walt punching Crabbe, her and Dumbledore's conversation and what Snape had said to her.

As they sat down, she had just finished her story and Fred and George burst out into laughter.

“Walt is an absolute legend!” Fred started.

“Where is he? I want to congratulate him myself!” George added.

Ora then looked around as she wanted to talk to Walt herself about this whole business to make sure nothing else had happened. She then spotted him sat alone on the end of the Slytherin table as people made sure not to sit anywhere near him.

Ora, Fed and George caught his attention and waved him over to where they were sat on the Gryffindor table.

As soon as he reached them, Ora gave Walt a massive hug and said, “don't worry about them. You're not the first muggle-born to be in Slytherin and you won't be the last. They'll come around to the idea.”

“I hope so, I'm dreading going to bed. What if they jinx or hex me in my sleep?” Walt questioned.

“My dear, sweet, innocent little Walt,” Fred began.

“Do you really think we'd let them get away with that?” George added.

“Just tell us if anything happens and we'll get them back ten time worse!” Ora joined in.

“Okay.” This brought a smile onto Walt's sad face.

“Why don't you sit here today? I'm sure professor Dumbledore wouldn't mind.” Ora asked him.

“No, its okay. If I sit here I'll just suffer more abuse from my house.” Ora understood this and let him get back to sitting by himself at the Slytherin table.

“I feel so bad for him. Could he change house?” Fred questioned.

“I don't think so and even if he could he probably wouldn't want to. He's too proud.” Ora replied.

At this point, Ora turned her head and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione coming into the hall. They took seats across from the twins and Ora and began tucking into the food.

“Ora, I heard about today. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm muggle-born too so I know how difficult it must have been to restrain yourself against such a baboon.” Hermione mentioned to Ora while giving her a sympathetic look.

“Thanks, Hermione. I didn't know your parents were muggles, what do they do?” Ora questioned Hermione interested in this subject.

“They're dentists!” She replied proudly

“Aw cool, my parents are teachers. That's actually how they met, teaching at the same school,” Ora said.

“That's amazing!” Hermione looked interested too.

They continued eating and comparing their muggle lives until Fred and George cut in with news that they had realised they hadn't shared with Ora yet.

“Hey, Ora! I know what'll cheer you up!” Fred shouted cheerfully.

“Really? And what's that?” Ora questioned.

“Harry Potter's only the new seeker on the Gryffindor quidditch team!” George added in an excited tone.

“What?! You're joking! First years aren't allowed to play quidditch!” She said incredulously.

“Well, McGonagall and Dumbledore decided to make an exception considering he's excellent!” George said.

“That's amazing! Well I'm sure with the addition of Harry, Gryffindor's sure to win this year! God knows we need a win for quidditch. Well done, Harry!” Ora turned to Harry and said.

“Thanks, Ora! I'll try to beat Slytherin's butt!” He said with a wink, making sure Ora knew he was on her side in the entire situation.

As they finished their meal, they stood up ready to leave before hearing a commotion around the Slytherin table.

As they made their way over to where a crowd had gathered they saw Walt stood in the middle of it with Draco staring at him as they exchanged harsh words.

“Yeah, well I don't want to hang around with people like you who think they're better than everyone just cos their daddy was friends with Voldemort!” Walt cried out.

“Shit.” Ora said knowing that despite how impressed she was with that comment, Malfoy would not respond kindly to it. Some people moved backwards at this comment, some people winced and some looked shocked at the very idea that not only had Walt said Voldemort's name but he had also brought up the Malfoys past of being death eaters and of course insulting Draco was also a terrible decision.

Ora thought it would be best to take Walt out of this situation before it escalated and before any teachers noticed what was happening.

She pushed her way through the crowd with Fred and George on her heels and said to Walt, “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Standing up for myself!” Walt replied.

“What happened? What made you say that to him?” Ora asked again.

“He called me a 'disgusting mudblood'!” He said angrily which made Ora angry too before composing herself and turning to Malfoy and saying, “You're kidding, right? The great Draco Malfoy hates muggle-borns?! Suprise suprise! Draco you're a horrible person and Walt” at this point she turned to her brother, “you're an idiot for not realising he was just saying it to provoke you into doing something stupid so get out of this crowd and wait for me outside the Great Hall!”

Walt had never seen Ora react like this before so he quickly scurried out of the hall and waited for her next to the doors before she could shout at him again.

Ora then turned her attention back to Malfoy, “you know, its funny, I was actually beginning to trust you. I thought you were genuinely friends with Walt.”

_I bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold._

Malfoy then cut in before she could continue, “I _was_ friends with him until I found out he was a-”

And it was Ora who cut in this time, “A what?! A _mudblood_?” Fred and George looked at her with shocked expressions as if thinking her crazy for actually saying what everyone was saying behind her back anyway. “You may only be a child but I thought you might be more mature then your parents when it comes to blood lines. They're set in their ways but you don't have to follow suit. You've turned out to be very disappointing, Draco Malfoy.” She finished her rant and stormed out of the hall not sparing a second to look back at Malfoy's stunned face.

_The cycle ends right now 'cause you can't lead me down that road._

She reached her brother outside the hall and ranted at him about not letting anyone get to him and to ignore them and then her, Fed and George walked in silence back to the Gryffindor common room.

When they went through the Fat Lady's portrait, they sat down at their regular table and began talking about what had just happened.

Fred was the first to brave breaking the silence, “So, that was… interesting.”

“Interesting? Are you being serious? We're being insulted behind our backs and to our faces and on top of that my brother has lost the only friends he had within his house and I doubt he'll manage to make any more unless people want to risk being called a 'blood traitor'.” Ora responded to Fred's comment in one breath.

“This is just getting ridiculous! I thought Dumbledore had it under control?” George added to the conversation.

“I guess you can't really have control over a Malfoy, can you?” Ora said. “Sorry guys, but I'm going up to bed before people start coming back to the dorm. Goodnight.” Ora went up the stairs without waiting for a reply, put her pyjamas on and climbed into bed with a large sigh. She didn't want to do her daily summary today, she didn't want to relive anything that had happened today at all. So instead she just drifted off to sleep.

*Knock knock *

Ora woke up being startled by the quiet knocking on the door. Through the night she was a light-sleeper but then when it came to morning, only a loud alarm clock or someone shaking her awake could get her out of a deep-sleep.

She looked around and noticed no one else had heard the knocking so she decided that she would answer the door before it continued and woke everyone up.

She crawled out of her bed and opened the door to the face of Hermione Granger.

“Hermione? What's up?” Ora asked as she rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out.

“Sorry for waking you, Ora. I need some help with something downstairs and you're the only one who I could think of that would help and wouldn't be mad at me for disturbing you.” Hermione replied.

“Oh okay, I'll just get a jacket.” Ora went back to her bed and found a grey hoodie out of her trunk and pulled it over her head. She then walked downstairs side by side with Hermione.

When they reached the common room, Hermione motioned her hand towards the sofa in front of the fire as if to tell Ora to sit down with her.

They sat down and Ora began warming her hands near the fire, “so, what did you need help with?”

“Oh, I don't want any help. In fact I was hoping I could help you.” And Ora quickly turned her head to face who was talking. The voice that rang out wasn't Hermione's at all, it was Fred Weasley's.

“What-but-you-and-Hermione-but-your-what?!” Ora couldn't piece her words together due to the shock of Fred being sat exactly where Hermione was only seconds ago.

“Shh, calm down. I went to sneak some polyjuice potion out of Snape's cupboard after everyone went to sleep. I only took a few drops so that Snape wouldn't notice any was missing and because I only needed to change long enough to get you down here.” Fred responded to Ora's outburst.

“So you changed into Hermione so the hex on the stairs to the girls dormitory wouldn't know you were a boy!” She worked out.

“Yeah, but keep it down! I don't want Percy the Prefect to go running off telling Filch I'm in the common room at this hour, or worse, if he tells mum.” And with that thought, he shuddered.

“So, did you need my help with something?” Ora asked him.

“No, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You were very quiet before you went up to your room and that's not like you.” Fred responded.

“Aww is Freddie concerned about me?” Ora giggled slightly.

“Yeah, I am.” Fred answered seriously not joining in with Ora's joke.

Noticing this, Ora also decided to be serious, “thank you, Fred but I'll be fine. All this will die down soon for me, I'm just worried about Walt.”

“Well, I stick with what me and George said the other day, Walt can take care of himself. You heard the insult he threw at Malfoy at dinner! He knows what he's doing and he won't let people get away with insulting his family!”

_All you are is mean, and a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life._

“I know, I know. A big sister can worry though, can't she?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Fred finished this particular part of the conversation as he thought about George and how he would be feeling the same way if a similar situation occurred with him.

Fred and Ora talked well into the night before Ora fell asleep curled up on the sofa with her head rested on Fred's shoulder. Fred then pulled the blanket from the back of the sofa and threw it over her, careful not to wake her up for a second time that night. He then decided instead of leaving her on the sofa and going up to his own bed, he would stay downstairs with her. He took one last look at Ora with caring eyes and a loving smile and rested his head on top of hers and went to sleep.


	5. The Winter Season

Chapter Five – The Winter Season

There will be two songs for this chapter since everything happens on different days.

The first song will be Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar and it will be from the beginning of the quidditch part up to Christmas morning.

The second songs will be Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra and it will be from the Christmas morning part to the end of the chapter.

 

\-----------------------------------------------

November seemed to arrive quickly and many things had happened since Ora and Fred had fallen asleep together on the sofa.

Firstly, they woke up to the cheeky smiles of George, Lee, Kimbra, Harry and Ron as they stared down at them waiting for them to wake up to begin their teasing.

There were comments all the way through breakfast, dinner and that night when they were in their respective dormitories thanks to those they shared their room with. But things eventually died down when the events in October took place and everyone seemed to forget about everything that had happened beforehand.

A troll had managed to get into the dungeons and of course, Harry, Ron and Hermione were involved in it. Percy threatened to tell their mother about Ron getting involved with troll disasters until Ron broke down and asked Fred and George to ensure he didn't say anything. And so, Fred, George and Ora pulled a prank on him which made sure Percy would not say a word to Molly Weasley about this.

Everyone seemed to be on full alert since the troll catastrophe and Ron, Harry and Hermione seemed to be more secretive than usual but the twins didn't seem too worried so Ora decided there was no need for her to be either.

 

It was now the morning of the quidditch game between Gryffindor and Slytherin and there was an excited chatter amongst the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

Harry was looking incredibly nervous and Ora had spotted this, “You alright, Harry?” She asked.

“Yeah.” He replied but Ora could tell he wasn't.

“You know there's no need to be nervous. I've seen you guys in practices and you're great! Much better than the last seeker.” She added quietly so no one could hear so as to not offend anyone with this statement. “You'll be fine. And just remember, if you lose, people will get over it! There's loads more matches to come and you are a first year so no one's expecting you to be amazingly brilliant!” She finished smiling warmly at Harry.

“Thanks, Ora.” This made Harry feel a little better but he still couldn't stop his hand shaking while he reached for the water jug across the table.

Ora then walked over to the Slytherin table to find Walt and talk to him about whether he would be going to the quidditch game or not.

She spotted him and waved though he only smiled back, “Morning! How did you sleep?” Ora asked as she lowered herself into a seat next to him which only made Slytherins move further away than they already had done from Walt.

“Not bad.” He replied shortly and quietly.

“They still ignoring you?” She asked looking around at the Slytherins sat near them.

“Obviously.” He said also looking around.

_Well, you're a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts like the one in me._

“And no one's said a thing to you?” Ora questioned again.

“No. But it's better that way. I'd prefer them ignoring me than calling me a mudblood every two minutes.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right. Listen, are you sure you don't want me to have a word with one of you're friends-” She was cut off by a sarcastic voice.

“Oh yeah cos that won't make it worse at all. Stop trying to be helpful cos you're only suggesting stupid things.”

“Fine.” She said shortly as she stood up from the table and decided she wanted to leave since he was clearly and understandably still in a bad mood. “You know, with the little friends you've got at the moment, I'd think you would want to keep those you actually have close.” And with that she walked back to Fred and George.

_That's okay. Let's see how you do it. Put up your dukes, let's get down to it._

“That didn't look like it went well,” Fred muttered to George.

George nodded back at him before saying loud enough this time so people around them could hear, “We better be going to get changed.” Fred and Harry stood up along with George ready to leave.

Ora then quickly said before they left, “Good luck guys!” and gave all three of them hugs causing them all to blush slightly.

After Ora had finished eating, she noticed people had started filing out of the Great Hall and making their way towards the quidditch pitch so she decided it was time to do the same.

“You coming, guys?” She directed towards Hermione and Ron.

“Yep, lets go!” Hermione said with an excited yet nervous tone.

They walked quickly towards the Gryffindor section of the stands surrounding the pitch and took seats next to Neville, Dean and Seamus.

Ora was used to this now, waiting for the teams to emerge from the changing rooms and watching them play quidditch for hours at a time, but she didn't mind. In fact she loved watching quidditch, especially since she got to cheer on her house and of course supporting Fred and George in the process was also a plus.

Ora then stopped thinking back on last year's game and the year before where she was accompanied by Fred and George since they were obviously not on the team in their first year, and turned her attention instead to the teams as they made their way onto the pitch.

She began cheering and screaming along with the rest of the stands for either Gryffindor or Slytherin.

_Hit me with your best shot. Why don't you hit me with your best shot?_

They mounted their brooms and set off flying into the air chasing each other for ownership of the Quaffle and attempting to score it through the goal posts that were high up in the air.

For a moment it seemed as though Slytherin was going to score until Fred or George managed to send a bludger flying the chaser's way. Ora was usually able to tell who was Fred and who was George but from this far away and without binoculars she was unable to differentiate between them.

_Hit me with your best shot. Fire away!_

Finally, ten points had been given to Gryffindor for a score made by Angelina Johnson.

“Budge up there, move along.” Hagrid said in a gruff voice from next to Ora.

Her, Ron and Hermione scooted along the bench to make room for Hagrid who joined them after telling them he'd originally been watching from his hut but preferred watching from the stands.

After a while, Harry was chasing the snitch until Flint had unfairly blocked him which caused Ora to shout 'foul!' along with the rest of the Gryffindors surrounding her. They then had a penalty which Alicia was able to score without any problems.

_You come on with it, come on. You don't fight fair._

Ora continued cheering for the Gryffindor team until everyone began to point and stare at Harry, who's broom seemed to be out of control.

_That's okay. See if I care._

Ora was too busy looking intently at Harry to notice what anyone else was saying until she heard Hermione say, “I knew it. Snape – look. He's doing something – jinxing the broom.”

Hermione decided she would take matters into her own hands and disappeared before anyone could ask what she was going to do.

_Knock me down, it's all in vain._

Ora watched Snape, presuming Hermione was going to do something to him. She was correct, out of no where, Snape's robes set on fire causing a commotion all around him.

“What the hell is she doing?!” Ora asked Ron who looked shocked yet impressed that Hermione had managed to do this.

“I don't know but it was bloody brilliant!” He replied still looking impressed.

“No it wasn't! She set him on fire! If he hadn't realised, she could've seriously hurt him!” Ora said.

“Good.” Ron replied under his breath.

Ora elbowed Ron in the side and said, “It's not good! Snape wouldn't do something like that! I know he doesn't seem to like Harry but that doesn't mean he'd try to kill him!”

“Are you sure about that? Look.” And Ron handed her his binoculars and pointed to Harry who's broom was no longer going haywire.

_I get right back on my feet again._

Ora was now thinking about Snape and how he wouldn't have done that to Harry. She may be one of the only ones who had seen Snape's nicer side but that didn't matter, it still proved that he wouldn't attempt to kill Harry.

_Hit me with your best shot. Why don't you hit me with your best shot?_

All of a sudden, interrupting Ora's thoughts, loud cheers and chanting erupted from all around her. She looked down and saw Harry waving the snitch around in his hands; Gryffindor had won!

_Hit me with your best shot. Fire away!_

The Snape issue seemed far out of her mind now as they were in the common room celebrating.

“I still can't believe Gryffindor have actually won a game of quidditch after so long!” Ora began to Fred, George and Lee, “Well done, guys. Seriously, you played your asses off!”

Fred, George and Lee laughed amongst themselves before looking back at Ora who was intoxicated from the cheerful atmosphere.

“Thanks, Ora!” Fred and George replied together, still laughing.

“Any of you guys fancy a game of wizards chess?” Lee asked the group that had formed a semi-circle next to the fire.

“Sure, I'm up for a game!” Angelina answered.

“Oh really? Well since you're up for playing a game, how about we play truth or dare instead? I dare you to kiss me!” Lee said cheekily with a huge smile plastered on his face which was quickly wiped off thanks to Angelina hitting the back of his head with a book that was littering the table.

It was no secret that Lee had a crush on Angelina. In fact, Lee had a crush on any female that had a pulse.

Ora, Fred and George laughed at Lee as he was screaming from being chased around the room by Angelina as she tried to hit him with the same book again.

“Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm ready to eat!” George said to the crowd.

He was met with a chorus of 'me too' and the large crowd made their way to the Great Hall and sat on the benches on either side of the Gryffindor table.

They were met with several pairs of angry eyes from the Slytherin table but they didn't care. The high they were on from winning was still present within the group and no one could bring them down from that.

“Hey guys, congratulations on winning!” Walt came from the Slytherin table and said to Fred, George, Angelina, Alicia and Katie.

All of them said thanks and he turned his attention to just Ora now, “Hey, Ora. Listen, I'm sorry about this morning. I'm just having trouble at the minute trying to fit into my house.”

_Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts like the one in me._

“I know. Don't worry about it.” Ora said icily making Walt decide he should probably take his leave.

“You alright there, Ice Queen?” Fred nudged Ora.

“Ice Queen?” She questioned the new name she had been given.

“Well, you were a bit cold to Walt, weren't you?” George said.

“You weren't at his table this morning. He was being a dick. And that lame-ass apology doesn't cover the way he behaved either.” Ora said in the cold tone she had given Walt.

“Okay then.” Fred said and they went back to eating and attempted to get the atmosphere back to what it was earlier.

_Before I put another notch in my lipstick case, you better make sure you put me in my place. Hit me with your best shot. Fire away!_

 

A month had gone by since Gryffindor had won quidditch and although Walt continued coming over to the Gryffindor table and chatting with Fred and George and occasionally managing to get more than two-word answers out of Ora, things still weren't right between them.

It was now Christmas morning and Ora awoke to the sound of Fred and George shouting her loudly from downstairs clearly not wanting to risk sneaking the polyjuice potion from Snape's cupboard again.

A week before, McGonagall had been down the Gryffindor table at breakfast asking who would be staying for Christmas and after taking the time it took McGonagall rounding the table fully and coming back to her to decide, Ora finally told her professor that she would be staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays.

That morning she sent her scops owl, Jude, with a letter to her parents explaining that she had a lot of work to do and would need to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays to finish her work and to study so she would have access to the library. She sent her apologies along with it and felt slightly guilty for lying to them. She kept up appearances for her parents in her letters she sent every week regarding her brother but she didn't fancy spending Christmas arguing or sat in an awkward silence around the table during their traditional Christmas dinner because of her stubbornness.

That was out of her mind at the moment though. This was the first time she had spent Christmas at Hogwarts and was very excited for it. So, she got to her feet, pulled a green zip-up hoodie on and went to the bottom of her bed to find a pile of presents.

She grabbed them and ran downstairs to the common room where Fred and George were waiting for her before opening their presents as they had all planned to do the night before.

“Merry Christmas!” She shouted to them as they leapt to their feet and ran over to her nearly knocking her over.

“Merry Christmas!” They shouted back in synch.

“You ready to open your presents?!” She asked them.

“Of course!” They shouted back excitedly.

_Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light._

They began opening them one by one. So far, Ora had received several items of clothes from her parents along with the obligatory socks present. Her brother had got her a box of her favourite chocolates from the muggle world which made her slightly less angry at him. George had bought her a pranking kit from Zonko's Joke Shop because 'she was getting there but still wasn't as good as them at pulling pranks'. She laughed and thanked him before opening Fred's present.

_From now on, our troubles will be out of sight._

“This is awesome, thanks Fred!” She said fully pulling open the moving poster of the Irish quidditch team which she had got her eye on for ages in one of the shops in Hogsmeade and told Fred about it.

“No worries. I picked it up when you were distracted in Honeydukes on our last visit to Hogsmeade.” He said offhandedly as if it weren't a big deal.

Ora smiled and passed him his present. He opened it quickly with a huge smile on his face and saw that she had got him an assortment of muggle pranking gifts which of course were not as inspired as Zonko's pranking sets but she thought he would appreciate the variety of them as he had never used or received muggle pranks before.

“Excellent!” He shouted, “Woah, I can use these on Ron!” he added looking at the fake spiders that moved when you wound them up.

_Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Make the Yuletide gay._

She then gave George his present which was very similar but had a different variety of muggle pranks. He said thank you and they finally got to their last gifts which they had purposefully left 'til the end knowing exactly what they were.

They tore them open and, after Ora took off her hoodie, pulled them over their heads.

Of course, they were Mrs Weasley's famous jumpers that she made her entire family and some select lucky people.

Ora had been getting them since her first year at Hogwarts due to her closeness to not only Fred and George but the entire Weasley family.

Fred and George's were blue and had an F and a G sown into them. Ora's was green and had an O on it.

“I say we go upstairs and get using those fake spiders on Ron already!” Fred said excitedly.

“Sure!” Ora said as all three of them made their way up to the boys dormitory knowing well that girls were allowed up there but boys weren't allowed in the girls one.

_From now on, our troubles will be miles away._

Fred, George and Ora burst into the room without knocking first and walked over to Ron and Harry who seemed to be the only first year Gryffindors to be staying at Hogwarts over Christmas.

Ron quickly ran for his dressing gown suddenly feeling very exposed due to there being a girl in his room. Ora, Fred and George noticed this and laughed at him while he turned red in the face.

“Merry Christmas!” All three of them shouted together when they had finished mocking Ron.

_Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore._

“Hey, look – Harry's got a Weasley jumper, too!” Fred and George said together.

Fred walked over to Harry's jumper and held it up, “Harry's is better than ours, though. She obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family.”

“Hey! I'm not family but mine's the same quality as yours! They all look the same to me.” Ora said.

“Nah, you're just delusional from graditude for getting one the past two years. His is definitely better. I guess she puts less effort into yours as well now since you're basically family.” George replied.

Ora was quite happy to hear this. She had also felt the Weasleys were like family and it was nice for her to know that they felt the same.

George turned to Ron and said, “Why aren't you wearing yours, Ron? Come on, get it on, they're lovely and warm.”

Ron looked sickened, “I hate maroon,” he said as he put his jumper on.

“You haven't got a letter on yours. I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid – we know we're called Gred and Forge.” George said with a grin on this face.

Ora cracked up at this but then stopped all of a sudden, “Wait a minute, I don't forget my name! Why do I have a letter on my jumper every year?”

“Well, we are triplets.” George said grinning.

“It's true, you look exactly like us!” Fred said through laughter.

With Ora's black eyes, long black hair and short, curvy build, she obviously looked nothing like the twins which was what was making everyone in the room laugh so much.

Percy looked around the still open door and said, “What's all this noise?”

Fred had noticed he was carrying his jumper too and immediately grabbed it saying, “P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one.”

As Fred and George forced the jumper on him, he was struggling against it and protesting until they jumped out of the room with him and Ora whilst insisting that he wasn't allowed to sit with the prefects at dinner since it was Christmas.

_Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more._

Ora had never experience such a Christmas dinner in her life! Sure, her family's dinners were brilliant and were much better considering she was surrounded by all her family who she had not seen since September. But this was an amazing occurrence that might not happen again so it seemed even better than it actually was! There was so much food on the table that Ora didn't even know where to begin.

After she was stuffed up from dinner and dessert, they all began pulling wizard crackers that she had not experienced before since she had not been in the wizarding world on Christmas day before and she found them amazing. They cracked and banged and smoke surrounded Ora and those sat near her and she demanded that she be allowed to pull more.

_Through the years, we all will be together, if the fates allow._

They all chatted cheerfully through the dinner and Ora spared a look at the teachers table every now and then, laughing at Dumbledore with a bonnet on his head that he'd got from a cracker and being surprised at how drunk professor McGonagall and Hagrid were. There were quite a few professors who had spent Christmas at Hogwarts that year, including professor Snape, who Ora had walked passed earlier on in the day and said 'merry Christmas' to and she could've sworn she saw him spare her a small smile.

_So hang a shining star upon the highest bough._

Eventually, people started leaving the hall after their dinner had settled in their stomachs and the Weasleys, Harry and Ora did the same.

As they walked outside the hall and passed an open door, Ora had a troublesome idea and decided it was a good idea to go through with it. She let the boys carry on walking in front of her and bent down under the pretence that she was tying her shoelaces on her boots, when in reality she was picking up as much snow as possible into both hands and quietly scurried towards the back of Fred and George and quickly stuffed it inside their jumpers.

They both let out yelps of shock and turned to see Ora's cheeky looking face laughing at them.

She then ran back towards the open door and picked up more snow and balled it up and threw it at Ron.

He looked angry and all of them then ran towards her as they ended up outside in a full blown snowball fight.

_And have yourself a merry little Christmas now._

It wasn't until they became incredibly wet from all the melted snow they'd thrown on each other that they decided it was time to go back to the common room and warm up.

Once they had arrived back at the common room, Ora had mentioned that she was going up to get changed and to dry off.

She went upstairs and changed into blue jeans and a grey knitted jumper that had snowflakes on it and made her way back downstairs to the boys who were crowding around the fire for warmth and were watching Ron and Harry play an intense game of wizard chess.

After their game had ended, with Ron winning thanks to Percy's terrible advice to Harry, they all made their way back to the Great Hall as it was time for tea which had a variety of classic Christmas dishes.

“Today's made me really think about family.” Ora mentioned to Fred and George out of no where as they were still stuffing their faces.

“Why?” George asked with a full mouth.

Ora tutted and said, “You guys are like a second family to me and as much fun as I've had with you today, its not the same as being with my parents and my brother. And I guess it's just made me think how much I've missed Walt over the past month. I should really stop being so stubborn.”

“I agree!” Fred said while dodging some trifle that Ora had thrown at him after he agreed with her about being stubborn.

When they were all full up, they went back to the common room and sat on the seats near the fire as Ora began talking with Ron and Harry about the presents they had be given and Ora was shocked to learn about the fifty pence piece that Harry had got from his aunt and uncle, the people he lived with.

“You're joking?” She questioned him in disbelief.

“No. This isn't the worse present they've given me though so I'm actually quite grateful for it.” Harry replied actually sounding genuine which Ora couldn't fathom.

“That's ridiculous. And you don't get any presents from friends or anyone else?” Ron added this time.

“I don't have any friends in the muggle world.” He said.

“Well, who needs 'em when you've got friends like us, right Ron?” She said to Harry and nudged Ron.

“Right!” He replied, smiling at Harry.

Before they could continue their conversation, they turned to a commotion between Fred, George and Percy.

“What's happening?” Harry asked them.

“They've stolen my prefect badge!” Percy replied incredulously.

Ron, Harry and Ora laughed at this minor problem that Percy seemed to be taking way too seriously.

_Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow._

He then spent well over half an hour chasing the twins around Gryffindor tower bellowing about giving him his badge back.

When they made their last lap around the tower, Fred and George were out of breath and said that they give up.

“Go on then, where is it?” Percy asked impatiently.

“You've been chasing the wrong people.” Fred and George replied together.

Ora then handed Percy his badge before saying, “They took it from you during our snowball fight and gave it to me to hold. I've had it for ages!”

Percy looked horrified and slightly annoyed that he had been outwitted.

_So, hang a shining star upon the highest bough._

As he walked towards his room, Ora shouted, “Sorry, Perce!” But she didn't seem sorry as she was trying to hold back her laughter while Fred, George, Ron and Harry weren't even trying to and found it hilarious.

Ron and Harry then went to their room and soon Fred and George followed after them. Ora decided she would stay downstairs a little longer so she could warm by the fire before sleeping.

Her mind raced with many thoughts from the day – had she been too harsh with her brother? Was it time to give up her one-sided feud? And most importantly, would the Weasleys be up for another snowball fight tomorrow?

_And have yourself a merry little Christmas now._


	6. Anyone Here For Love?

Chapter Six – Anyone Here For Love?

Song for the chapter – I Won't Say (I'm In Love)

 

Term had now began again which meant quidditch practice had also started back up.

Although Ora loved watching quidditch and enjoyed being sat in the stands during their training since she liked to cheer Fred and George on, she didn't always want to be there and she began missing them. They seemed to be pulling less pranks together and just spent less time together in general.

Harry, Hermione and Ron seemed to be busier recently and her room-mates left their homework they had to do over Christmas til the last minute so it seemed as though no one was free to cause trouble with Ora.

However, one good thing did come out of this: she managed to talk to her brother since no one else was free to talk anymore.

She had seen him at breakfast and decided it was a good time to swallow her pride and talk to him after one month of ignoring him.

“Hey, Walt. I won't take up too much of your time, I just wanted to ask how your Christmas was?” Ora asked at the Slytherin table.

“It was great, thanks! But it would've been even better if you were there!” He shouted excitedly at the fact that Ora had actually spoken to him for more than three seconds.

“Sorry, I just had a lot of work to do.” She said looking guiltily at him.

“Yeah, mum showed me your letter. Did you get it all done?”

“Er, yeah. All done now.” She still had a guilty expression plastered on her face.

“Good! How was your Christmas?”

“Amazing actually! A lot better than I thought it would be. We had snowball fights and there was a great feast to rival mum's!” Ora said happily, recalling the Christmas dinner.

“That's great!”

There was a lull in the conversation which made Ora work up the courage to say what she had wanted to say since Christmas day, “I'm sorry.”

“Sorry? What are you sorry for?” Walt looked genuinely confused.

“My stubbornness got in the way of us spending Christmas together. I overreacted. I know you're bound to be in a bad mood after everything your house is putting you through and I should've been more sensitive to that.” She replied looking down at her feet, not wanting to meet his blue eyes.

“I'm the one that's sorry! I shouldn't have reacted that way! You were only trying to help and I snapped at you.” He said, also now finding his feet suddenly interesting.

“Don't be ridiculous, you apologised later that evening… it took me a month, not only to accept your apology but to say sorry to you as well.” She now looked at Walt in his eyes and smiled before saying, “Come on, let's have walk around the grounds. Might as well make use of a boring Saturday, eh?”

_If there's a prize for rotten judgement, I guess I've already won that._

Walt gave his answer via a smile and they trudged off together, visiting the library first so Walt could take a book out, chatting about Christmas and what they had missed in each other's lives in the absence of their daily talks until they reached one topic that made Ora redden in the face and look away from Walt. The subject was of course, Fred Weasley.

“Do we have to talk about him?” She asked.

“Well, first answer me this question,” Walt began. “Are you missing his company whilst he's practising quidditch?”

“Well yeah, but I'm missing George's company too.” She said defiantly.

“Oh please! Don't try to hide it! You told me back in your first year that you liked him! And now with that expression on your face, I think you looooove him!” He said in a sing-song voice that Ora really didn't appreciate.

_No man is worth the aggravation. That's ancient history. Been there, done that._

“Shhh! People might hear you!” Ora whispered to Walt while attempting to cover his mouth and looking around to make sure no one heard.

“I'll quieten down when you admit you love Fr-” He was stopped by Ora who had swiftly nudged him in the ribs when she heard a voice behind her she really didn't want to hear at this moment.

_Who'd you think you're kidding? He's the earth and heaven to you._

“What was that, Wrenne? You're in love?!” It was Draco Malfoy who said this and laughed loudly with Crabbe and Goyle who stood behind him.

“Bugger off, Malfoy.” Walt said and attempted to rush Ora outside the library and away from the scene.

They had reached the exit of the library, stepped outside and heard the door slam shut behind them, or they thought it was behind them, it in fact, let the Slytherin gang through first.

“What's wrong, Wrenne? Don't they love you back? I'm not surprised! Who'd love someone like you?!” Malfoy screamed thinking himself hilarious with this statement.

However, only Crabbe and Goyle laughed, Walt and Ora stared at him like he was nothing more than a speck of dirt.

“You know something, Malfoy? I think you're jealous.” She said moving towards him as he tried backing away but to his surprise, he hit a wall.

“Pfft, jealous?! You've got to be kidding! What am I jealous of exactly? I don't like you if that's what you're implying!” He said defensively, looking towards his cronies making sure they were not believing her words.

“Actually, I was insinuating that you were jealous cos I'm cable of love and you clearly aren't. Though, now you mention it... yeah. Yeah, I kinda do think you like me.” She said and clear enough to Walt, she was joking and just trying to make him annoyed so he would leave them alone but instead he saw something completely different. Draco Malfoy was blushing.

Ora was only a foot away from his face and they were looking each other in the eyes when Ora began laughing and said, “What's wrong, Malfoy? Hit a nerve?” Walt had noticed that his sister, who was incredibly naive about people liking her, hadn't realised that Malfoy was now blushing at their closeness and her correct insinuation.

She now moved away from Malfoy, expecting him to throw an insult at her about him not possibly liking a mudblood like her but instead he stood frozen to the spot, with his cheeks still reddened.

Crabbe and Goyle started to feel worried about Malfoy and nudged him several times before he came out of his trance, laughing maliciously but with a hint of nervousness.

“Like I'd be interested in her!” He said, back to his old self once more.

_Try to keep it hidden, honey we can see right through you._

Before, anyone could retort, Neville Longbottom had shuffled his way out of the library, stopping suddenly noticing that Malfoy and his heavies were stood there.

Immediately, everything that had happened before had seemed to be erased from everyone's minds when Malfoy started edging towards Neville, clearly ready to turn his bullying attention to him instead.

Ora and Walt stood still thinking it best to stay where they were as they knew Neville wouldn't be able to stand up for himself against Malfoy.

“If it isn't Longbottom!” Malfoy began, “I wondered when I'd see you around. You see, I want to practice this new jinx on you.”

“Back off.” Walt said, standing in front of Neville now.

“Unless you want to experience the jinxes you learn in third year. Also, you should probably consider who I'm friends with before you even attempt any hexes. Thanks to the twins, I probably know all the counter curses to anything you throw at me and I can more than likely hit you back ten times worse. So unless you want sick coming out of your nose for the next 24 hours, I suggest you leave Neville alone.” Ora said, also moving in front of Neville to protect him.

Malfoy thought this through first, then decided it probably wouldn't be wise to attempt a battle of hexes with one of the pranking trio. He turned around, summoned his friends to follow him and they walked around the corner.

“Th-thank you!” Neville stammered out.

“No problem, buddy!” Walt said patting him on the back.

“Let us know if he gives you any more grief.” Ora added, smiling at Neville who was still shaking with fright. “Anyway, we better go, Walt. It's almost time for tea.” She said as she turned to her brother.

They walked away from Neville after saying their goodbyes and walked towards the Great Hall. Ora looked at the section of the table that they usually sat at and noticed Fred and George were already there waiting for Ora.

Unfortunately, seeing Fred reminded Walt of their conversation from earlier, “Oh I almost forgot! I was in the midst of teasing you before I was so rudely interrupted!” He laughed at himself while saying this.

_Girl, you can't conceal it. We know how you're feeling. Who you thinking of?_

“Please don't say anything to him, Walt.” She pleaded with him.

“Of course I won't-”

“Thank you!”

“Wait, you didn't let me finish… I won't tell anyone as long as you actually admit it to me. I am your brother after all and I want to eye up my future brother-in-law!” He said winking at her blushing face.

“Fine, fine! You win, I like him!” She said under her breath to him.

“No no no, you're not getting away with that! I know you like him, you admitted that ages ago! I want you to admit you love him!” Walt said smiling cheekily at Ora.

_No chance, no way, I won't it say it, no, no._

“Come on, let's not go that far. He probably doesn't even like me, let alone love me so what's the point in me admitting it and getting my heart broken?” She said with a sullen look on her face.

Walt was about to say something to reassure her before he was cut off by shouts from the Gryffindor table, “Come on, Ora! We're waiting for you til we start eating and we're starving!” Fred shouted at her whilst George waved his arms towards where they were stood.

Ora and Walt hugged and agreed that they would talk in the morning as usual and she made her way to the table, sitting between the twins.

“Finally!” Fred shouted.

“Sorry! You could've started eating without me though.” She replied.

“No, I don't mean 'finally we get to eat', I mean 'finally, you guys have made up'!” Fred said back, smiling.

“Oh right, yeah. I realised I was being stupid. Anyway, that's behind us now!” Ora said happily.

“Good!” Fred said excitedly, putting an arm around Ora as he said this, lingering for longer than what Ora expected him to.

_You swoon, you sigh. Why deny it?_

“So, how's quidditch practice going?” She directed the question to Fred, George and Harry who were sat near her.

“Excellent! Although, we found out Snape would be refereeing the next match.” Harry said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“Oh, I'm sure you guys'll be fine! Snape's not that harsh!” Ora replied.

“Not to you.” Ron muttered quietly enough so he thought Ora couldn't hear.

“What was that, Ronald?” She turned her head towards him with a sly smile on her face, knowing exactly what Ron had said.

“Nothing, nothing!” Ron scrambled to say.

Ora then looked up and down the table seemingly looking for someone.

“What's up?” George asked her.

“I'm looking for Neville, I saw him earlier and he was in a bit of a scrape with Malfoy but luckily me and Walt were there to scare him away. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.” Ora answered him, still looking around to find him.

“Oh, you weren't in the common room when he came in, were you?” Fred asked though she didn't have time to answer since George already knew the answer was no and went on to explain what had happened.

“He came hopping in after Malfoy had performed the Leg-Locker curse on him. Hermione fixed it though, but I think he's a little embarrassed, that's why he's not here.” George said.

“But, Walt and I saw Malfoy leave. Surely he didn't come back?” Ora questioned.

“He did. Before Neville went upstairs to sulk, he told us that you guys had stopped him but as soon as you left he came back.” Fred answered.

“That's it, I'm gonna kill him!” She said, standing from her seat.

Fred put a soothing hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down into her seat gently, “Don't bother, he'll only get satisfaction from you being kicked out of school cos of it.”

_It's too cliché, I won't say I'm in love._

“I guess. I just hate seeing him pick on people when they don't have anyone else with them and when he knows they're too nice to say anything to him.” Ora replied as her face fell slightly when Fred had removed his hand from her.

_I thought my heart had learned its lesson. It feels so good when you start out._

“I know, I know. Just leave it, he'll get his comeuppance soon.” George said to Ora's worried face.

They then went back to the subject of quidditch, with everyone clearly avoiding the Snape issue without wanting to experience Ora's wrath like Ron almost had.

Those who played quidditch joined the conversation and were complaining about Oliver's schedule for them and they discussed this until they decided it was probably time to go up to their common room.

Ora didn't spend long chatting with the group before decided it had been a long day and she needed to sleep.

She said goodnight to those who were left in the common room and went upstairs to her room before settling down and reliving the events of the day.

 

It was the day of the quidditch match and there were worried murmurs amongst the Gryffindor crowd as they all shuffled along the path up to the pitch.

Ora was walking with Ron, Hermione and Harry as they were giving Harry a pep talk with Ora contributing to it every now and then.

She knew people in Gryffindor believed that Snape would find it difficult to be unbiased in the game considering how much he seemed to hate their house. She understood their worried whispers as she also believed Snape did seem to have a vendetta against Gryffindor but she did not understand Ron and Hermione's worries.

From what she had heard from the little information they gave away, they seemed to be scared that Snape would attempt to hurt Harry or jinx his broom as they believed he had done in the last quidditch match but Ora did not believe this and constantly reminded them during their walk that Snape was a trusted professor and wouldn't do anything of the sort.

They eventually reached the changing rooms where Fred, George and the rest of the team were already inside, getting ready.

Hermione and Ron wished him luck before making their way to the stands, whilst Ora stayed where she was and asked Harry if he would ask Fred and George to come outside for a minute if they were ready. Before he made his way inside after nodding to Ora, she also wished him luck.

Fred and George came out of the changing room minutes later, looking at Ora and waiting for her to say whatever it was that she had called them outside for.

“Sorry to drag you out here when you're getting ready, I just wanted to wish you luck since I didn't see you at the breakfast table!” She said whilst patting both of them on the back.

_My head is screaming 'get a grip, girl! Unless you're dying to cry your heart out!'._

“Thanks, Ora!” They shouted together.

Before they could make their way back inside, Ora called Fred again to talk to him and George walked into the changing rooms, pretending to close the door behind him but actually leaving it open a notch to listen in on what they were saying.

“I promise I'll let you get back to Oliver's famous speech in a minute. I just wanted to, erm, err-” She stumbled on her words and then cut herself off from the torturing mumbles she was making by kissing Fred on the cheek and running to sit at the stands while shouting 'good luck' over her shoulder.

_Girl, you can't deny it; who you are and how you're feeling._

Ron and Hermione had clearly seen the scene from their binoculars as when Ora sat down next to them, they were both looking at her flushed face with enormous smiles on their faces which Ora decided to ignore.

_Baby, we're not buying. Hon, we saw you hit the ceiling._

Their faces quickly changed to ones of seriousness when the teams began walking onto the pitch along with Snape.

Ron made a comment on how Snape was looking particularly mean today, when he was nudged in the back of his head by Malfoy.

Ron decided to ignore him, as did Ora who couldn't help but wish for a bludger to go mad and hit him in the head.

He kept making snide remarks throughout the game until Ron reached his peak and turned around and pushed Malfoy to the ground. Although Hermione couldn't tear her eyes away from the game, Ora could and was now attempting to pull Ron and Neville off Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle but to no avail.

“Ron, for gods sake, you're missing the game!” Ora said, her thoughts not on the idea that Ron might get into trouble for getting into a scuffle but for the fact that he was missing his best friend and brothers winning the game.

As Harry lifted the snitch above his head, the Gryffindors surrounding Ora cheered and screamed in joy, hugging each other for the win.

Hermione shouted something at Ron about winning the game but Ora wasn't concentrating on that. All she could think of was how she was going to face Fred now. She had not thought through kissing his cheek as it was in the heat of the moment but now she had time to think about it, she definitely regretted it.

_Face it like a grown-up. When you gonna own up that you got, got, got it bad?_

Although she had fallen for Fred, she wished she hadn't projected this to him through kissing him. Any other way would have been better than that, she thought.

Her mind moved quickly off this subject though, when she was ushered with the crowd down to where everyone was stood celebrating and shaking Harry's hand.

She caught Fred's eye and decided this was a good time to go back to the castle before he could begin mocking her about earlier.

_No chance, no way, I won't say it, no, no._

She went back to the common room and waited there for the crowd to come back and celebrate as she thought through what she would say to Fred when he confronted her.

After a while, a large crowd of Gryffindors arrived in the common room and were still shouting and cheering for their win. Fred walked over to Ora and sat next to her as there was an awkward silence between them before Ora decided it was time to break it, “Well done, you played excellently!”

“Thanks!” Fred said, “I'm pretty sure it was thanks to that good luck kiss you gave me.” He added, making his face blush furiously.

_Give up, give in. Check the grin, you're in love._

Ora thought this through quickly and decided she would go along with this story and instead of admitting she was falling for him, she could agree with him that it was just an attempt to give him luck for the game. “Yeah, well, you know what they say – my lips are lucky!” She replied laughing along with him.

Although she was slightly disappointed that he hadn't worked out the kiss was to show her attraction to him, she felt relief that she didn't need to answer any awkward questions about it. That was until George ran over to them, “Hey love-birds!”

“Don't even bother, George or next time I'll give you a good luck kiss too!” Ora said threateningly as Fred shot a jealous look over to George which suggested, in George's eyes, that he wasn't too pleased at the idea of anyone getting kisses from Ora other than him.

_This scene won't play, I won't say I'm in love._

“Alright, alright!” George replied while holding his hands up in surrender.

Fred then laughed and stood up to walk back towards the crowd to continue celebrating.

“It wasn't a good luck kiss, was it?” George turned to Ora.

_You're doing flips, read our lips, you're in love._

Ora trusted George not to say anything to his twin, knowing that he would work it out for himself soon enough and that Ora would send so many curses his way, he wouldn't be out of the hospital wing for at least a month.

“No. He'll never realise, will he?” She asked him, hoping to be reassured that Fred might one day notice her as more than a friend.

“Oh, he will. It's so obvious that he likes you too and its only a matter of time that he realises that for himself.” George replied as Ora laughed at this thought.

_You're way off base, I won't say it._

Fred then came back over to the table sharing a marvellous idea he had had, “We should swipe some food from the kitchens! We've not done that this year yet!”

And with some quick nodding from both Ora and George, they got up and ran to the secret passageway that led to the kitchens and were met with many huge eyes looking back at them and bidding them a happy 'hello'.

“Hey guys! Miss us?” Fred, George and Ora asked together.

The house elves replied happily that they had indeed missed them and they quickly put together a few bags of food for them to help them celebrate their quidditch win.

After saying goodbye to them, they went back to the Gryffindor common room and shared the food out as the atmosphere grew more lively when food had entered the equation.

They ate so much that a few of them decided it was best not to go down to the Great Hall to have dinner as they didn't want to see food again until morning. Fred, George and Ora were chilling next to the fire before all of them were able to pick themselves up and made their way to their own rooms.

_Get off my case, I won't say it._

Ora laid back on her bed, feeling too tired to be able to get changed and began thinking back on the last fews days she had had.

Her and Walt had finally made up and things were great between them! But, unfortunately, things were still not great for Walt within his house. Would this change at all? And what was with Malfoy acting weird after Ora had stood up to him? And finally, she thought back to the kiss she had given to Fred's cheek and how amazing it had felt to even be that close to him. Would he ever notice her in that light?

_Girl, don't be proud. It's okay, you're in love._

This made her wonder about her own feelings instead of Fred's for a moment and came to a conclusion – she did love him.

_At least out loud, I won't say I'm in love._

With her thoughts thoroughly engaged on Fred Weasley, she fell into a deep sleep, with dreams of him filling her head.


	7. Thing's I Almost Remember

Chapter Seven – Things I Almost Remember

Song for the chapter – Once Upon a Dream – Lana Del Rey Version (for the darkness of it)

 

A while had passed and exams had been and gone. They had a week til they had to find out how they had done which wasn't worrying Fred and George at all, in fact they were that happy that they were already planning a prank on Filch to celebrate, but Ora was incredibly worried. However, she wasn't worried about the prank, in fact it was the only thing she was excited about, it was her exams. She thought that she hadn't done well even though she had studied every night up to the first exam and then crammed before each other one.

“You've done fine! In fact, I bet you've done brilliant!” Fred replied to her worries when they were sat next to the lake as the twins and Lee tickled the tentacle of the squid who lived there.

“Really? How much?” George said, getting serious.

“Guys! Can you not bet on my exam results being shit or not!” Ora said grumpily.

All three nodded at her but then turned to each other and Ora could have sworn she saw money change hands but she didn't care enough about the bet to attempt to stop it again.

“I think I'll go and see how their last exam went,” Ora said offhandedly to the group and nodded over to Harry, Hermione and Ron who were sat under a tree, talking.

She walked over to them and they seemed to stop their conversation when she arrived, “Hi guys! How did your last exam go?” She asked.

“It went really well!”

“It was bloody awful!”

“I don't know whether I studied enough to get an amazing grade but we'll see.”

She got a chorus of answers and replied, “Great! Apart from you, Ron. I can't imagine your mum will be happy when you give her that answer, you should probably change it.”

“You're right. Er, it went amazingly!” He said unconvincingly, but it was enough to subdue the topic as they talked for a bit but Ora sensed they wanted to continue their conversation from earlier so she left them to it and walked back to Fred, George and Lee.

“Let me guess, Hermione did well, Ron didn't and Harry wasn't sure?” George asked, unusually interested in his brother and friends' exam results.

“Yeah, why?” But before Ora got a reply she saw them exchanging money, “Oh, you were betting.” She got nods back before turning her head back to the Golden Trio, “Do you think they're up to something?”

“Nope.” Lee said.

“Who cares?” Fred and George replied together.

“Well, what if it's something serious and they get into trouble? You know they were the ones that set fire to a professor's robes and took on a troll, and the year's not even over yet, don't you?” She asked rhetorically.

“They'll be fine!” Fred said, reassuring her.

“I think I preferred it when you were worrying about yourself,” George added.

“What if it's something dangerous, which based on the other events, it more than likely is!” Ora asked with worry in her voice.

“So what? They can handle themselves, I promise!” Lee added to the discussion this time.

“Okay, but if someone gets hurt, I'm killing all three of you.” Ora said as they laughed at this, believing it to be a joke until Ora added, “I'm being serious.” And they abruptly stopped.

After tickling the squid had become boring to Fred, George and Lee, they stood up to go to the Gryffindor common room and Ora trudged after them.

 

 

Her worrying from the day before seemed to slip from her mind the next day as she woke up to her room-mates shouting 'happy birthday' in her sleeping face.

“Ugh, why would you wake me?” Ora asked, turning over onto her back.

“Ora, it's your birthday!” Kimbra shouted once more, hoping it would sink in this time.

They all stared at her closed eyes for another twenty seconds before she quickly sat up and shouted, “IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!”

They all laughed at her and she immediately got washed and changed and ran downstairs. She was excited because, not only was it her birthday but, it was also the day that Fred and George had planned their prank on Filch and this was their birthday gift to Ora.

When she reached the bottom step, she saw Fred and George were not there even though they had arranged to meet ten minutes ago and they were usually on time. So, she made her way to the Great Hall and was about to sit down before she was tackled into a hug from behind by her brother.

“Happy 14th birthday, sis!” Walt shouted in her ear.

“Thanks, Walt!” She replied through laughter.

“Here's your present!” He was still smiling while he passed it her.

She quickly unwrapped it and smiled with joy at what she saw, it was a huge assortment of goodies from Honeydukes and were all her favourites.

“Thank you!” She said as she opened a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and handed him one.

She also took one for herself and they looked at each other, waiting for a reaction from the beans they had eaten.

“Ew, that was horrible!” Walt said while spitting it out.

Ora laughed at her brother and said, “Bubblegum flavour!” And then stuck her tongue out at him rather childishly.

“I got sick flavour.” Walt said with the same disgusted expression he wore when he first put it in his mouth.

“So, what have you got from lover-boy?” Walt asked in a mocking way.

“Shut up, Walt! And him and George are giving me the gift of laughter with a prank they set up on Filch! It's not happened yet though. In fact, I've not seen them yet.” She said while looking at the Gryffindor table and noticing that they still weren't there.

“I wonder where they are.” Walt added, also looking confused towards the table, “Anyway, I better get back to my table, they're having a celebration of sorts in the Slytherin common room to celebrate getting through our first exams for the first years and the last exams for those in their 7th year.”

“That's great! So, are you making friends again?” Ora asked.

“No, but I'm going to the party anyway!” Walt said, laughing as he spoke.

Ora then laughed with him and they separated ways.

She sat near Harry, Ron and Hermione as they all beamed at her and bid her a 'happy birthday'.

“Thanks.” Ora replied sullenly, wondering where Fred and George were.

“What's wrong, Ora?” A voice from behind her asked.

“Missing us?” Another voice asked, and she immediately recognised the voices as Fred and George.

“Where have you been?!” She asked as they gave her slight hugs and sat on either side of her.

“We were just tying up a few ends to our prank for later.” George said in cheeky way.

“Happy birthday by the way!” They shouted together.

She laughed and thanked them before turning her attention to the owls that had flown in delivering post.

Ora became excited as she noticed three different owls land in front of her, one of them belonging to her parents who decided to buy an owl from Diagon Alley when they bought Jude for her so they could send letters to her without waiting for Jude to arrive with a letter first from Ora.

But, the other two owls, she recognised as owls that belonged to the school and wondered who within the school was sending her letters and a package.

She opened her parents letter which read,

'Dear Ora,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! We hope you have an amazing day! Try not to get into too much trouble with Fred and George, we don't want to remember your birthday in years to come as the day that you got expelled! I think you'll find the present is to your liking!

Lots of love,

Mum and Dad

xxxxxxxxxxxxx'

Fred and George were reading it over her shoulder and laughed at the part about getting into trouble. Clearly, Ora's parents knew the twins too well.

They turned back to Ora who was opening her present quickly. It was a new jumper that she had asked for and a new book about clairvoyance and the connections it has with mythology. This was, of course, a muggle book and therefore the information would largely be incorrect but she was interested in it, nevertheless.

She then looked at the other two letters and one package that remained and opened the one that had come without a package first. This read,

'Dear Ora Fia Wrenne,

I must admit of my liking for you through a letter brought to you on your 14th birthday. I hope you don't think this to be strange but my parents would not approve of me openly admitting my attraction to you, not to mention this attraction could pass over the summer. Within this letter, I simply wanted to make you aware that you are liked a lot by someone you know and to wish you a happy birthday.

From,

Z

xxx'

Fred and George had been reading this as well and turned to Ora with fixed expressions, George's was softer and was beginning to change into a smile but Fred still did not look happy.

“Oooooo! Who'd you think it's from?!” George questioned attempting to hold in his laughter.

“If this was part of your prank, it's not funny.” She replied seriously, looking between Fred and George.

“It wasn't, we swear!” They said in synch as they held their hands up in surrender.

“Then who is it from?” She asked curiously, looking through the letter once again.

“What's wrong, Fred? Looking a little flushed.” George asked his twin, despite knowing why he looked flushed.

He was angry and confused. Who was this 'Z' person and why were they admitting their love for his Ora? 'No', he thought, 'she's not my Ora'.

“Nothing, I was just thinking who it could be.” Fred replied in a sad, quiet sort of voice which Ora hadn't seemed to notice.

She tossed the letter into the pocket of her robes quickly and then went to open the other letter.

It was a small, simple note that said,

'Ora,

Happy birthday,

from,

someone who wishes you the best.'

This confused Ora even more so than the love letter. Who could this one possible be from now?!

“That's weird.” Fred said.

“I'd say it was more mysterious.” George added, thinking about it.

Ora then looked around to see if anyone was watching her open her parcel to attempt to catch those who had sent it. This was because it was obvious that the people that had sent her these things must have been within the school as they used the Hogwarts owls.

But who was it? This would annoy Ora to no end.

“Open your parcel!” Fred said with anticipation to what she had been sent.

“Okay, okay!” She replied as she opened the parcel to find a small box sat before her.

The dark blue box was square with slightly rounded corners and had gold, curly patterns on the lid.

“What is it?” George asked interestedly.

“You know it may surprise you, George, but I don't have x-ray vision.” Ora answered sarcastically.

She then opened the box which turned out to be a music box which became evident when a sound began playing due to the lid being lifted.

The sound sent Ora into a daydream. She knew this music. She remembered this song. She could almost hear the lyrics in her head but could not put them together; they were too scrambled. But the words mixing in her head now constructed one of the lyrics, **'There's a land that I've heard of once, in a lullaby'.** It fitted to one part of the song and she wished she could remember the rest of the lyrics but that wasn't what was on her mind at the minute.

_I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream._

What she was thinking of now was, why did she know the song? It wasn't a song she had heard from the muggle world. So, why did she know it?

_I know you, the look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam._

Apparently she had sung the lyrics out-loud as Fred and George were now making comments about that they had never heard her sing before and that she should sing more for them.

“This isn't the time to be thinking about singing.” She started, “Who sent this? I don't know that song but at the same time, its in my memory somewhere.”

Before Ora could ask more questions which would only confuse herself further, professor Dumbledore had made her jump, “I hear it is your birthday, Miss Wrenne? I hope you are not planning anything too… wild.” He said behind her which made her, Fred and George turn around. He seemed to pause in the middle of the sentence to turn to look at Fred and George, clearly knowing that they would be planning something crazy for her birthday.

“And, what is that you have? A present?” Dumbledore asked whilst motioning to the music box.

“Yes, sir.” She said, handing him it to look at.

“It's beautiful. It's strange.” He said earning him strange looks from the trio.

“Strange, sir?” Fred enquired.

“You see, I seem to have seen this before, though I'm not sure where.” He replied.

“That's weird, I feel the same, though I recognise the song in it.” Ora said, looking up at the headmaster.

“It plays music?”

“Yes, sir.” He gave it her back to work the box and then the tune played again.

Dumbledore seemed to be flickering between emotions, he started with a face of recognition, then surprise, and then his face returned to normal before moving his eyes to look at the teachers table and then back to the trio.

_And I know it's true, that visions are seldom all they seem._

Finally, he said, “It's enchanting.”

“It is, isn't it? I can't help but wonder who sent it though.” Ora replied.

“Hmm, yes. Very strange.” And then said goodbye and went back up to the teachers table.

“What was that about?” George asked Ora.

“Not a clue.” She answered, looking genuinely confused.

They then continued eating, chatting and speculating about who had sent the letters and the parcel until they reached the end of the discussion and set off towards their first class of the day.

To say it was Ora's birthday, she was incredibly bored. She had a full day of lessons with not even an hour free apart from at lunch.

Luckily, Fred and George were in all her classes that day and so they tried their best to make it as fun as possible which put Ora in a great mood.

It had come to the end of the day, they had eaten their dinner and were going to the common room, or that's what Ora had thought.

As the common room came into view, a staircase changed direction next to them and they moved and walked onto it which confused Ora until she realised what was happening.

“Ah, is this my birthday present?” She asked with a mischievous look on her face.

“Yep!” They replied in unison, both smiling at her.

She then became very excited and couldn't wait to see what this prank was.

They reached Filch's office and hid behind a corner to ensure the coast was clear before continuing round the corner and away from his office.

“Wait, I thought we were pranking Filch?” Ora muttered with her hands on her hips.

“We lied!” They said together once again.

“What?! Are you joking?! Why not?!” She asked too many questions for the twins' liking so they put their hands over her mouth and told her what would happen so they could talk without her interrupting or asking unnecessary questions.

“We're blowing up a toilet?!” She relayed their plan back to them in one sentence.

“It's gonna be amazing!” George said excitedly.

“We've learnt what spell we're going to use for it and we're nicking the actual toilet as well! We're just blowing it away from the wall it's attached to and then running around the corner and hiding with the toilet and watching Filch's face when he hears the commotion and sees what we've done!” Fred added.

Ora laughed at this and suddenly got excited thinking about it as they were almost at the toilets that they were conducting their prank in.

They walked into the toilet and picked which one they were taking. Fred and George said the magic words and waved their wands and the toilet became detached from the wall. The two of them ran up to it, picked it up with great difficulty and then they ran to a corner they knew they would be safe to stand at without anyone noticing.

When they were hiding, Ora couldn't help but sense the closeness her and Fred were sharing at the moment. They were brushed up against each other and Ora could feel a shiver crawling down her back instantly.

_But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream._

They didn't have to wait long before Filch came running down the corridor and into the bathroom. He came back out ten seconds later looking very angry and frustrated and then ran away, presumably to get a teacher.

Fred, George and Ora ran away as quickly as their feet would take them and jolted into the common room, with Fred and George taking their toilet upstairs to sit next to their beds before coming back down to Ora.

“That was great, guys! Thanks for the amazing present!” Ora was still crying with laughter.

“You're welcome, Ora!” They shouted together, also laughing.

All three of them talked well into the night before they decided it was time to go to bed.

“Thank you for today, it's been crazy, weird and awesome!” Ora said before going upstairs to bed.

She reached her bed, got changed and laid down with thoughts swarming into her brain. Who was the love letter from? Was it a joke or was it serious? What sent the box and what did it mean? Why did she recognise the tune? And as her eyes began to close, the lyric she remembered rang in her head once again, **'there's a land that I've heard of once, in a lullaby'**.

 

The next morning, Ora woke with the tune still stuck in her head which was immediately forgotten about when she heard shouting downstairs.

She got up, got dressed and made her way down to the common room, finding, what seemed to be the entirety of the house causing a commotion.

Ora waded through the crowd and found Lee stood next to Angelina and Alicia chatting to each other.

“What's going on?” She said them.

“You haven't heard?” Lee asked.

“No, I've only just woke up.”

“It's mad! Harry Potter defeated Quirrell!” Angelina spoke loudly, over the sound of the crowd.

“What?! He attacked a professor?” She asked.

“No, no.” Alicia began telling Ora about Voldemort being attached to the back of Quirrell's head and that he was after the philosopher's stone, that also had to be explained to her as she didn't know what that was either.

After Alicia had finished telling the story, Ora suddenly looked very worried.

“Wait a minute. Voldemort was on the back of Quirrell's head the entire time?” Ora began, “We threw snowballs at Voldemort! Oh shit.”

Fred and George laughed from behind her as she turned and smiled realising it was them, “You are bad influences. We threw snowballs at the Dark Lord. That is pretty amazing but also if he ever become ruler of the world, we're totally dead.”

_But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream._

They laughed at her comment, when Fred interrupted, “We're going to see Harry to cheer him up, wanna come?”

“Sounds good!” Ora answered.

They went to the hospital wing and asked to see Harry and Madam Pomfrey allowed them to, providing they left within ten minutes.

George and Fred set the toilet down next to Harry's bed, but only after Madam Pomfrey had disappeared behind the curtain of someone else's bed, so the twins could bring it in.

After five minutes, Ora proposed that they left considering Harry was unconscious and it didn't look like he'd be waking up for them so they backed at of the door to ensure Pomfrey hadn't seen them leave and made them take the toilet back.

As they walked down the corridor away from the hospital wing, they heard shouting and some mild cursing.

“Oh shit, that's Pomfrey!” Ora said and before they could run away, she appeared at the door and asked that they remove the toilet from Harry's bedside.

They did as they were told with annoyed looking faces and abandoned the toilet somewhere on the grounds, thinking that they didn't need it anymore.

The rest of the day went by very fast and not much had happened, apart from a lot of rumours spreading about Harry Potter and what had happened that fateful night.

When Ora reached her bed that night, she was kept awake by the conversation she was having with her room-mates about the whole Quirrell/Voldemort thing and therefore didn't get much sleep.

 

Ora awoke to a similar conversation that they were having the night before and decided she didn't want to hear anymore of it and got changed and left the room.

Ora, Fred and George met each other in the common room to go to breakfast and were talking about packing, the year that had gone by quickly and what they were doing over the summer. They were leaving tomorrow and, as much as they all wanted to see their families, they would miss each other a lot and wouldn't see each other for another three weeks, when Ora came to the Burrow to spend some time with her favourite people.

They reached the Great Hall, had breakfast, chatted with Walt and made their way to their first lesson of the day.

The day went by pretty slowly as it was one of the worst days regarding the lessons she had. There was no potions that day, and two hours of Charms which Ora didn't appreciate.

When it was time for dinner, they went back to the Great Hall for the last dinner they would have that school year and sat down at their usual spaces on the Gryffindor table, with Ora looking over at Walt and giving him a wave which he returned.

The fact that this was to be the last time they ate the scrumptious food that Hogwarts provided for dinner until next September was not the only thing that made everyone on the table look depressed that evening; it was also due to the fact that Gryffindor was coming last in the House Cup this year and yet again, Slytherin was going to win.

Dumbledore stood at the front of the hall and everyone fell silent as he said, “Another year gone! And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…”

“Hey,” Ora began to whisper to Fred and George, “You already forgotten everything we learned?”

“Yep.” They said together.

“Did we even really know it in the first place?” Fred added the last bit.

Dumbledore continued his speech, “Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw have four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two.”

All the Gryffindors moaned at this, including Ora, Fred and George who seemed to over-act this and groaned the loudest when Slytherin was mentioned.

“Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin. However, recent events must be taken into account.”

“Oh shit, maybe this means Slytherin won't win?!” Ora muttered.

“We can only hope.” George replied still staring at Dumbledore.

“I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes… first – to Mr Ronald Weasley.” Dumbledore continued on.

Everyone in the room was now staring at Ron, who looked like he was about to burst from the redness spreading across his face.

“...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points.”

Everyone cheered, but no one clapped as much as Fred and George, who were incredibly proud of Ron, though they would never admit it, but it was very obvious to Ora.

Percy then began to shout how proud he was of Ron and all Ora could think was, at least the twins are proud in a quiet, non-embarrassing way.

“Second – to Miss Hermione Granger… for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty-points.”

Everyone on the table cheered yet again and Ora couldn't help but look back at Malfoy to see what his reaction was at this – a muggle-born getting awarded. She took pleasure at the view she saw, he was looking very disgruntled and annoyed.

“Third – to Mr Harry Potter, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points.”

“YES!!” Ora shouted, along with many other people sat around her. They had drawn with Slytherin which wasn't a win but at least Slytherin weren't the only winners this year.

Suddenly, Dumbledore's hand was raised to quieten the room, which immediately happened.

“Don't tell me there's more points...” George said quietly to Ora and Fred as they nodded.

“There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr Neville Longbottom.”

Ora felt a siblings kind of love for Neville since she first met him, and found him to be extremely clumsy which only made him seem more adorable to her. That's why she stood up for him as much as she did outside the library earlier in the year. He was a second brother to her and to Walt.

So, when it was announced that he had been responsible for budging the points up enough for Gryffindor to win the House Cup, Ora couldn't have felt more proud for Neville.

In fact, she stood up and walked slightly down the table to Neville who was looking very nervous and embarrassed and hugged him tightly. Many people then joined in and all in all, Neville got a year's worth of hugs within the space of a minute.

When everyone had finished hugging Neville and had sat back down, Dumbledore ended his speech, “Which means, we need a little change of decoration.” And with that, he clapped his hands together and the hangings changed from the Slytherin colours to the Gryffindor ones which made Ora very happy.

“Look at McGonagall and Snape!” Fred said to George and Ora.

They turned their heads and saw them shaking hands, though Snape looked thoroughly displeased.

But, when Ora, Fred and George had got back to celebrating, McGonagall and Snape had finished shaking hands and Snape turned to look at Ora.

He watched her jump up and down with glee and hugging everyone in her house in site and for a moment, he actually felt glad that Gryffindor had won that year.

_I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream._

_I know you, the look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam._

They ate their dinner and everyone made their way to their own common rooms, with Ora, Fred and George being one of the first back to theirs.

“Today's turned out to be pretty amazing!” Ora said, still excited that they had won the House Cup.

“We agree!” Fred and George shouted together, clearly sharing the same emotion as Ora.

They then went on to talk about how the Slytherins had looked when they found out they were second to Gryffindor and then moved onto the topic of those who won them points and then decided it was time for bed.

They bid their goodnights and Ora made her way to her comfy looking matress, changed and laid back, thinking about the day that had passed.

Her mind was still very much focused on who had sent those letters and so she thought about that for a while, but her mind quickly changed to focus her attention on what had happened today.

_And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem._

How amazing it had been to see the Gryffindor colours across the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall and how proud she was of Harry, Ron, Hermione and, of course, Neville. With these being her last thoughts of the day, she went to sleep with happy memories entering her head.

_But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream._


	8. Finding Out

Chapter Eight – Finding Out

Song for the chapter – Cups (When I'm Gone) by Anna Kendrick and Because Of You by Kelly Clarkson

 

A week passed and it was a busy day because they were leaving that morning to catch the train to go home.

To Ora, the year seemed to have gone too fast and she hated this day every year. She loved Hogwarts; part of the reason that she wanted to be a professor there was so she never had to say goodbye to it. There were too many amazing memories shared with loving friends at the school and so she always got emotional when it came to packing up and going home for the summer.

There was only one good thing that had come every year from leaving day, the fact that Ora would get to see her parents and family again and that she was able to see Fred and George during two weeks of the holiday.

She had already packed and had met Fred and George in the common room for the last time that year and they walked together to the Great Hall.

They took seats near Harry, Ron and Hermione for their breakfast and as they ate, Ora asked how Harry was after everything that had happened and he assured her he was fine.

About ten minutes into eating, Harry said, “Thanks for the present by the way! Sorry you had to take it away but it's the thought that counts.”

“What prese- Oh, the toilet!” Ora said as recognition fell on Fred and George's face.

“Yeah, how did you manage to do that without getting caught?!” Harry asked.

“Easy.” George said.

“Easy?!” Harry looked shocked.

“You seem to be forgetting that we're Weasleys.” Fred added.

“Ahem ahem.”

“We keep telling you that you're an honorary Weasley!” They shouted together, making Ora laugh.

They then continued eating until they finished everything on the table and professor McGonagall handed some notes around that reminded them they weren't allowed to perform magic outside of school unless they were 17 or over.

“I always hope they'll forget to give us these.” Fred quietly said to those who were around him, considering McGonagall was still too close to them for him to say it louder.

“We better get going or we'll miss the train.” Ora added to the conversation.

They made their way to the Hogsmeade station thanks to the help of the thestrals and carriages and of course Hagrid and the boats for the first and last years.

Lifting their trunks onto the train, they found empty seats and talked throughout the journey.

_I got my ticket for the long way round. Two bottles of whiskey for the way._

After half an hour on the Hogwarts Express, unwelcome guests made their way through the train and stopped outside the doors of Fred, George and Ora's seats and went in.

“Well well well, the Weasles and Wrenne.” Draco Malfoy's viscous voice entered their ears.

“What do you want, Malfoy?” Fred asked him.

“Oh nothing, I just saw you in here and thought it was a good opportunity to ask Wrenne whether she'd admitted her love yet or not?” He asked with an evil grin on his face.

“What?!” Fred turned to Ora now, “You're in love?”

“Oh, she's not told you? Oops.” Malfoy unconvincingly said, clearly not caring that he'd said that.

“Ignore him, he doesn't know what he's talking about.” Ora looked to Fred, using her eyes to plead with him not to press it further.

“Wait, no, I'm interested as well. Who is it you're in love with?” George asked with a certain glint in his eye, knowing exactly who it was that she's in love with.

“Just leave it.” Ora replied, looking at Fred and George and then to Malfoy, “I expect you've got better things to do than to annoy me?”

“Not really. This is fun.” He answered her, still smiling.

“Well, its not for me so please leave.”

“Fine. But don't think I'll forget about this over summer. I'll still 'annoy' you with it then.” Malfoy said over his shoulder as he left the compartment to pick on someone else.

“What did he mean? Are you in love?” Fred turned to Ora again.

“Does this really need to be discussed?” She asked desperately.

“Yep!” George said cheekily.

“It's no one.”

“It must be someone, unless you're in love with Jude!” Fred replied, laughing at his own joke.

“It doesn't matter, he doesn't like me anyway.” This was her attempt at changing the subject but she couldn't help but want to stay on the topic when she heard what Fred said afterwards.

_And I sure would like some sweet company, and I'm leaving tomorrow. What do you say?_

“Please, who wouldn't like you?”

She grinned from ear to ear as she looked up at Fred and noticed that he hadn't realised what he had said but when it dawned on him, he blushed furiously.

The next ten minutes went by awkwardly before Ora decided it was best to see her brother for a bit to give Fred time to recover.

She strolled down the train, looking into each compartment to try to find him and it wasn't until she reached one compartment that had Neville, Seamus, Dean and her brother inside that made her stop and go in.

“Hi! You guys up to much?” She asked them, happily.

“Just talking about the events this year.” Her brother answered, budging up to make room for her to sit next to him, “Where's Fred and George?”

“They're in another compartment, recovering from Malfoy busting in and ruining our journey.” She replied.

“W-why? What's he done this time?” Neville stumbled on his words when he recalled the painful insults and hexes Malfoy had given him over the year.

“Nothing, just a bit of teasing, that's all.”

“He wasn't making fun of you liking someone again, was he?” Neville asked without thinking.

“He was, actually. But, I would've preferred Seamus and Dean not to have known as well, Neville.” She answered, giving him a stern look, which immediately softened when he apologised.

“Don't worry about it, Neville. We won't say anything!” Dean said.

“Yeah, we won't mention a word-” Seamus added.

“Thanks guys!”

“Wait, we won't mention a word as long as you tell us who it is.” He said, with a smile covering his face.

“Nope, no, no, no! You're not pulling the same crap on me that Walt did.” She almost shouted and looked at Walt who was recalling the time he had said the same thing.

“Aww, please, tell us!” Dean said pleadingly.

“Why would I tell you?” She looked between Seamus and Dean.

“Well, if it's me, I'd prefer to know so I can begin trying to impress you!” Seamus said, laughing along with the others.

Seamus' joke broke the questions off and Ora continued talking to them before returning to the section that Fred and George were sat in.

“You were a while.” George noted as he focused on the game of Exploding Snap he was playing with Fred.

“Yeah, Neville let slip that I love someone and Seamus and Dean had many questions.” She said with a sigh as she sat next to Fred.

“Who's winning?” She asked.

“Me!” They both shouted and then looked at each other in confusion and started the game again.

The rest of the journey went by quickly until they saw the welcoming sign of platform nine and three quarters as they stopped to an abrupt halt at the platform.

_When I'm gone, when I'm gone, you're gonna miss me when I'm gone._

As they stepped off the train, they immediately saw their own families and ran to them, accepting the hugs and kisses they got when they reached them. It wasn't long before Harry, Ron, Hermione and Walt joined them as well and did the same.

The Wrenne parents, Molly Weasley and Ginny Weasley were all stood together when they had received hugs from their children.

“Thanks for the jumper, Mrs Weasley!” Ora turned her head to the twins' mother.

“You're welcome, dear. I expect I'll be seeing you in two weeks, that is if you're wanting to come?” She replied.

“That would be awesome if you don't mind?!” Ora answered.

“Of course, we love having you!” Mrs Weasley said, looking joyful.

Ora then turned to the twins and gave them both tight hugs, with Fred's lasting slightly longer, and bid them goodbye before going back to the car, loading it with her's and Walt's trunks and setting off to her home town of Margate.

_You're gonna miss me by my hair. You're gonna miss me everywhere. Oh, you're gonna miss me when I'm gone._

 

Nine days after arriving back home, Ora found herself still finding things out of her trunk that she had not yet unpacked, including the music box that had been gifted to her on her birthday.

_I will not make the same mistakes that you did._

She placed it on her dresser and went downstairs to say good morning to her parents and her brother and ate her breakfast.

“So, what have you got planned for today, honey? More reading?” Ora's dad asked her.

“Yep! I think I might start packing for my trip to the Burrow. And at the same time, unpacking from school.” She replied.

“Unpacking?! You can't still be unpacking?” Her mum chipped in.

“Er, yeah. I had stuff to do when I came back so I thought I'd leave the packing til later.”

“Nine days later?” Her mum asked with an incredulous look on her face.

Ora nodded, looking down into her cereal bowl.

“Do you want some help packing?” Her mum asked.

“Yes please, that would be great!”

They went upstairs to Ora's room after she had gotten changed and finished her breakfast.

“So, shall I sort your pyjamas out and you can pack your clothes?” Her mum questioned.

“Great,” Ora responded as she began taking clothes out of her wardrobe and putting them neatly into her case.

A few minutes passed before her mum broke the silence, “We haven't talked much about school since you came back. How was it? Are you missing Fred and George?”

“Mum, all I talked about when we came back was school. And of course I'm missing them.” Ora answered.

_I will not let myself cause my heart so much misery._

“Yeah, but there's some things we haven't covered.”

“Like what?”

“I don't know. Like, did you get any detentions goofing off with the twins? How were the teachers this year?” She enquired.

“No, we remained detention free this year, thankfully. And the teachers were fine. There was this weird thing about professor Snape's robes being set on fire which caused a riot amongst the teachers but other than that, they've been fine.”

“Ah right… is Severus still being nice to you compared to the other students?”

“Oh yeah, he still is. Weird, isn't?” Ora recalled mentioning this to her mother in the summer after her first year at Hogwarts. How did she manage to remember this?

_I will not break the way you did, you fell so hard._

“Yes, it's stran- What's this?” Her mum changed the topic of conversation as she had noticed the music box on the dresser, asking what it was.

“Oh, it was a birthday present. I don't know who from though. It came anonymously.” She answered her mum's strange question.

Her mum seemed to process this in her head for a while before opening the box.

Ora looked at her, shocked as she began humming the music. Ora moved towards her, “How do you know this song?”

_I've learned the hard way to never let it get that far._

Her mother immediately stopped humming and turned to her daughter, “Er, I don't know. I just know it.”

“You know, I recognise it too. For some reason, I know one lyric, or I think it's a lyric anyway. **There's a land that I've heard of once, in a lullaby.** ”

Her mum's shocked expression had not changed and she turned to Ora suspiciously, “So, you have no idea who sent it?”

“Nope, not a clue.”

“Right.”

And with that, they remained silent for the rest of the time they spent packing. At one point, Ora could swear she heard her mother sobbing but when she looked at her face, the thought dropped from her mind as she saw she looked completely normal.

That night, Ora couldn't get to sleep as it was playing on her mind. How did her mum know that song?! Why did she remember that Snape was nice to her after so long?

_Because of you, I never stray too far from the sidewalk._

These thoughts weren't leaving her head so she went downstairs and made herself a cup of tea and sat on one of the chairs at the table attempting to get rid of this terrible feeling she had that her mum somehow knew who had given her the music box.

Before these thoughts could leave her, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs and saw that it was her mother.

“Can't get to sleep?” Her mum asked her, tiredly.

Ora shook her head and her mum continued, “Me neither.”

“I can't stop thinking about earlier.” Ora began, getting the courage to ask what she wanted to ask, “Mum, how did you know the song?”

_Because of you, I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt._

“I knew I shouldn't have sent you to that school. I knew it would make you ask questions.” Her mum said, not looking Ora in the eyes.

“What? Why? You were so excited when I got the letter!”

“I was and I am so proud of you for getting a place at Hogwarts. I just knew you would find out, I knew he wouldn't be able to help himself.”

“Who?”

“Severus.”

This caused Ora to look shocked at her mother. What did this mean? Why would Ora ask questions about Snape? Though as soon as this question popped into her mind, she thought it was ironic that she was asking a question about Snape while questioning why she would ever ask one.

Ora's mum continued, “I met him 14 years ago. He was on some sort of mission in our the muggle world and had gone to the pub I worked at and we just started talking. We spent the night together.”

Her mother was cut off by the sound of Ora retching. She looked over at her and laughed, “Come on, Ora, take this seriously.” She said as she recovered from laughing at her.

“Sorry, sorry, carry on. What happened after you… spent the night together?” Ora took her time saying this, still finding it horrible to think about.

“Well, we sort of started dating.” Her mum continued.

“Sort of?” Ora questioned.

“We never really defined it, but we kept meeting up a lot and I fell for him. I told him I loved him on my birthday after he gave me that beautiful music box as a gift. However, he didn't return the sentiments, he loved someone else. He liked me a lot but not as much as her.” She took a deep breath, “It would have been awkward to continue seeing him but he was leaving to go back to Hogwarts anyway soon after that. When we met to say our goodbyes, I gave him the music box back, I told him it was too painful for me to see it everyday as it would remind me of him so I gave it him back.”

“So that's how you know the song.” Her mother's story registered in her mind.

“Yes. I used to sing it to you when you were a baby and that's how you know it too. Anyway, after he left, I discovered I was pregnant with you.”

This also registered in her mind which made her wonder, “Wait, had you met dad by that point?”

“No.”

“So, who's my father?” She asked, shocked, even though she already knew the answer.

“You're smart enough to work it out.”

“Snape?” Ora questioned with tears in her eyes.

“Yes.”

_Because of you, I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me._

“And does dad know?”

“Yes.”

“But he still raised me as his own.”

“You are his daughter to him, Ora. He's been with you through everything.”

“I know.” And with that, Ora went to sleep without another word to her mother, suddenly missing Hogwarts more than she usually did.

_Because of you, I am afraid._


	9. Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts

Chapter Nine – Gotta Get Back To Hogwarts

Song for the chapter – No Way Out by Phil Collins

 

“Honey, it's time to get up.” Ora's mum patted her gently on the arm to wake her up.

Ora turned over to ensure when she woke up she wasn't facing her mother. Seeing this, her mum left the room and let Ora get changed and head downstairs for her breakfast, something she usually didn't have time for on the first day of term.

When Ora went downstairs to eat her breakfast, her father, or at least who she thought was her father, gave her a hug and told her he would not be able to join her mother in taking Ora and Walt to King's Cross. Ora was not shocked by this as her father had not spent an awful lot of time with his family since Ora had told him that she knew about Snape being her biological father.

“I'll be off then.” Her father said as Ora and Walt were digging into their breakfast, “Enjoy school and remember to write letters!”

Ora's mother went to give her father a kiss and he left swiftly instead.

_Everywhere I turn, I hurt someone._

Her mother looked down solemnly and continued getting her things together ready for the long trip to the train station.

After what seemed like the longest journey they had been on as a family, they reached platform nine and three quarters with Ora and Walt already having put their trunks into an empty carriage.

Their mother gave Walt a hug and then moved onto Ora who quickly caused a diversion so as to not have to hug her mother whom she had been trying to ignore through the summer. Ora's diversion to check on their trunks to ensure they were still in the carriage (even though she knew it was safe to assume they were) only lasted until she came back out and had to face her mum again but luckily for her, her mother did not try to hug her again. She had clearly gotten the message and instead wished her luck for the term ahead and said, “Are you going to mention this to Severus?”

She immediately regretted asking this when Ora gave her a look that suggested she didn't want her mum to even say Snape's name again.

“Sorry,” Her mother quickly said, knowing she would not get an answer and instead decided it was best to attempt to apologise for what had happened over the summer again. “I really am sorry about not telling you sooner but I didn't think you'd be able to handle it.”

_But there's nothing I can say to change the things I've done._

“Oh, and look how well I've handled it now.” Ora responded sarcastically as she turned and stepped onto the train and into the carriage that Walt was already sat in, having decided he didn't want to stick around after getting a hug to hear how awkward a goodbye Ora and their mum's would be.

Walt leaned out of the open window of the compartment and waved to his mum, with Ora choosing to stay sat without even glancing at her mother to say goodbye.

As Ora was just getting comfortable in her seat to have nap, Fred and George burst into their carriage and shouted together, “Hey Wrennes!”

Walt smiled and bid a hearty 'hello' with Ora forcing a smile and muttering what sounded like 'hi'.

Fred took the seat next to Ora, with George sat across from them, next to Walt.

“What's up with you, grumpy?” Fred asked, nudging Ora slightly.

“Nothing.” She replied, looking out of the window.

“Well, there's got to be something. All we've heard from you all holiday is a letter saying that you weren't coming for our traditional two weeks torturing of Percy! You didn't even give a reason...” Fred ended, seeming to trail off.

“Just tell them, Ora. They are your best friends, they won't laugh at you or anything.” Walt said to Ora. He then got up and went to find Neville, Seamus and Dean, once again deciding to avoid the awkward conversation.

“So, what's happened?” George now asked.

“I got some news from my mum over the holidays.” Ora began, attempting to hold back tears that had been threatening to fall since she found out about Snape. “There's a reason I knew that song from the music box. And I now know who sent it.”

Fred now chipped in, “How did you know it?”

Then George, “Who was it?”

Ora continued whilst also answering their questions, “It was professor Snape. And I knew the tune because my mum had the exact same music box 14 years ago.”

Ora then went on to tell them all about how Snape was her biological father and explained everything in-between to them. When she finally finished her story, she looked at them expectantly, assuming they would laugh at the idea of her and Snape being related. The funny thing was, they weren't laughing at all, in fact, they looked shocked, confused and sad, much like Ora was when she first found out.

“Snape is your, your” George began but couldn't seem to get the word out so Fred finished for him.

“Father?”

“Yes. But don't mention anything to him. I haven't sent an owl or anything to tell him I know.” Ora answered, swallowing a lump that had made its way to her throat.

“Will you tell him?” Fred asked.

“Yes, I'm going to ask to talk to him after our first potions lesson.”

No one spoke for what seemed like an hour but was actually only ten minutes until George broke the silence by saying he was going to find the trolley lady to buy Ora some snacks to make her feel better.

“I'm sorry you've had to go through this.” Fred finally said to Ora.

“Don't worry about it. It's not been easy but Walt's been there for me. Dad's not really said much to me though.” Ora looked down at this, thinking back on the morning after she had found out when she had walked downstairs to find herself entering the kitchen in the middle of a heated argument between her mother and father. When they both looked at her as she entered the room, they went quiet as her father sat down across from her at the table. Ora had looked up and for the first time in her life, she saw her father silently crying, thinking that Ora would no longer look to him as her father.

_Of all the things I hid from you, I cannot hide the shame._

Ora shared this memory with Fred and despite the many choke-backs she had made to attempt to stop, she had finally let go and was crying.

Fred could not bare to see his best friend break down as she was doing and quickly drew her into a tight hug, whilst stroking her back attentively.

Eventually, after half an hour of Ora sobbing into Fred's shoulder, George had returned which made her stop abruptly and George broke the ice by offering her one of her favourite treats, a chocolate frog.

They then spent the rest of the journey eating and discussing how she would bring up the matter at hand with Snape before Fred and George told Ora all about their dad's flying car and the escapade it was to rescue Harry from his uncle's grasp.

Half an hour later, they pulled into the Hogsmeade station and got into a carriage pulled by a thestral and set off on their way to Hogwarts, Ora's second home that she had missed dearly that summer.

As Hogwarts came into view, Ora's tears had disappeared from her eyes as a wide smile spread across her face, feeling great to finally be back where she belonged.

Ora, Fred and George got out of the carriage and walked into the castle and into the Great Hall where people started filing in and finding spare seats. The trio chose to sit near to the front to ensure they would be able to see the sorting ceremony, what with Ginny Weasley being sorted that year.

“Do you guys think Ginny'll be in Gryffindor?” Ora turned to Fred and George after sitting down.

“Definitely!” The twins said together.

“She's the bravest person we've ever known and she's only 11!” Fred added.

They then all quietened down when they saw Dumbledore standing up ready to make a short announcement that the first years would be arriving soon.

Ora looked around the Gryffindor table and whispered to the twins, “Where's Ron? Surely he'll want to see his only sister being sorted?”

“I don't know. Come to think of it, we didn't see him on the train.” George answered.

“Harry's not here either.” Fred said.

They then let this thought die down in their heads when they noticed Ginny and the rest of the first years enter the hall.

Professor McGonagall began reading out the names of the first years and Ora, Fred and George held their breaths when Ginny's was read out and she sat on the stool at the front of the hall.

“Gryffindor!” The sorting hat shouted loudly over the screams and cheers of the Gryffindor table.

Fred and George looked incredibly proud and Ora budged up to allow a space between herself and George for Ginny to sit down at.

“Well done, Ginny!” Fred and George said together, patting her on the back.

“Congratulations!” Ora added looking at Ginny's relieved face.

Dumbledore then read out a few notices before the feast began and Ora tried her best not to look at Snape, knowing well that she would tear up again, that or punch him anyway.

Fred could sense there was something wrong and from the way she was avoiding Snape's direction, he knew what it was. Observing this, he touched her hand and looked her in the eyes, asking if she was okay.

_And I pray someone, something will come to take away the pain._

Ora nodded, blushed and continued eating her way through her feelings.

The time came to retire back to the Gryffindor common room and on the walk there, Lee Jordan came up to Fred, George and Ora and told them the news that Ron and Harry had been caught coming to school in Arthur Weasley's flying car.

“You're joking?!” Ora questioned Lee with an incredulous look on her face, clearly not believing a word of what Lee was saying.

“It's the truth!” He replied through laughter.

Fred and George then turned to Ora and told her that it was the proudest they had been of their youngest brother.

When they had finally got into the common room, they saw Ron and Harry surrounded by several people who were either patting them on their backs or scorning them as Hermione was currently doing.

They walked up to the crowd and Fred and George patted them both on the backs and said, “Why couldn't we've come in the car, eh?” with Ora laughing at them but also telling them off, saying that they could've been seriously hurt. But seeing Ron's face turn scarlet, she decided to leave it to Hermione, Percy and, more than likely, Mrs Weasley to scold them.

Fred, Ora and George went to sit on their usual pods beside the windows with their conversation turning to the subject of their new defence against the dark arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart.

“Did we tell you that we saw him in Flourish and Blotts?” Fred asked Ora.

“He was signing copies of his books. Mum was swooning after him.” George added with derision in his voice.

“Seriously? I've not seen him before. Is he hot?” Ora questioned interestedly.

“Funnily enough, Ora, we don't really notice stuff like that.” Fred answered with a small amount of jealousy creeping onto his face.

Ora laughed and said that she would soon find out whenever their first lesson back was.

“It was so funny, we thought she would faint or something.” George laughed.

“Oh, and dad got into a fight with Lucius Malfoy!” Fred added, laughing as well.

“What?! Why?” Ora looked shocked.

“He was making all these quips about us not being able to afford new books and hanging around with muggles and muggle-borns.” George's face turned mad when saying this.

“Really? What a dickhead. Like father, like son.” Ora replied, forgetting that she would also have to put up with Draco Malfoy this year as well as telling Snape about the revelation her mother had made to her over summer.

The three of them then exchanged stories of the summer and played a few games of exploding snap before deciding to call it a night.

Ora woke up the next day feeling groggy and nervous, knowing that it was the first official day of lessons and she would more than likely have potions with Snape later on which made her feel incredibly down-trodden.

_There's no way out of this dark place. No hope, no future._

Ora got washed, changed and went downstairs to see Fred and George's happy faces staring at her which made her feel slightly better.

“Ready for breakfast?” They asked her together.

“Definitely! I'm starving.” She replied, attempting to look normal, like nothing was wrong.

They walked into the Great Hall and sat on the benches at the table and began eating. Professor McGonagall was coming down the table with the timetables to which Ora was crossing her fingers in hope that she didn't have potions that day.

“There you go, Wrenne.” McGonagall handed her the sheet of paper.

Fred could tell she was worried and he knew exactly why. So, he looked at the paper for her first and Ora saw dread cross his face which he immediately changed to look at her with sympathy.

“Just say it, I've got potions today, haven't I?” Ora asked him with worry in her voice.

“Sorry, Ora. Its first thing too.” Fred replied, looking back down at the sheet, hoping it had miraculously changed.

“Shiiiiiiit!” She raged quietly.

Breakfast finished a lot quicker than Ora would have liked and they all made their way towards the dungeons for their potions lesson.

People were finding spare seats and Ora, Fred and George sat at the back, as usual waiting for professor Snape to enter the room.

“Quiet down, quiet down.” This was a signal that he had come into the room.

Ora could barely look at him and instead was staring down at her notebook, doodling.

Snape had seemed to notice this as he said, “Miss Wrenne, is there a full script of what I am teaching in your notebook?”

“Erm, no, sir.” Ora said, still not meeting his eyes.

“Well then, I suggest you look to the front and listen to our lesson on potion antidotes.” His voice was very stern.

Ora looked forward but definitely was not looking into Snape's eyes, which were now studying her face for any sign of embarrassment for what he had said, hoping that she wasn't mortified.

Ora didn't care about being called out for not paying attention though. In fact, it didn't bother her in the slightest, she couldn't stop thinking about how she would bring up that she knew she was his daughter to Snape.

Potions seemed to go pretty quickly to Ora, more than likely because she was going to bring up the subject at hand to him after the lesson.

She walked up to his desk as he sat down, readying the next lesson for the students.

“Can I talk to you, sir?” Ora asked him quietly.

“You may, Miss Wrenne, so long as it is quick.” Professor Snape replied, looking up at her.

“Its just that, see I found out, well its just, my mum you see, she...” And she trailed off into incomprehensible words and sentences which luckily, Snape couldn't string together.

“Miss Wrenne, perhaps it would be better if you talked to your head of house about whatever it is that seems to be troubling you.” Snape looked down again at his work and continued what he was doing.

“Erm, okay, sir.” Ora walked quickly out of the room and almost ran into Fred who was waiting outside the door for her. She looked sad.

_I know I can't be free and I can't see another way. I can't face another day._

“What happened? Did he not take the news well?” He questioned her whilst attempting to comfort her by wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“I, I didn't tell him. I couldn't. It was too difficult. I need to build myself up to it.” She replied in a panicky voice.

“Okay, okay, Ora. Don't worry about it, you can tell him whenever you want. You don't even have to tell him ever! Don't let it get you down and try not to worry too much about. You know I'm always here for you.” He stopped them walking and stood in front of Ora and pulled her into him for a warm hug which Ora was very thankful for.

After what seemed far too soon for Ora's liking, they parted and walked to their next class together.

When they arrived, they sat on either side of George who was already there, having told their teacher that they were going to be late as they needed to talk to professor Snape about something.

Ora could not keep her mind on the current subject that they were talking about in charms, with her mind racing from what had just happened. Not only with Snape, who she was trying to work out a way to tell him she knew without panicking, but also with Fred Weasley. She loved him, she had already admitted that to herself. But she knew he would never love her back. After all, he was the kindest, sweetest, funniest person she knew, he could be with anyone he wanted to be with.

Similar thoughts ran through her head all the way through the day, until it was time for defence against the dark arts and they were all sat in waiting for the famous Gilderoy Lockhart to emerge from his office to teach them.

Suddenly, the door to his office burst open and he began slowly descending the stairs to the front of the room where Ora, Fred and George had decided it was best to sit to get the best seats for professor Lockhart's performance.

“Can you all see me?” Lockhart did not wait for an answer before saying, “Good! And have you all got your copies of my books in front of you?” He looked around and then smiled and repeated, “Good! Now, to begin with, I would like you all to complete this quiz on what you have read within my books.” He then handed around sheets of paper with many questions on it, and surprisingly, they were all about professor Lockhart.

“Figures. Obviously, every single question is about him. It's got nothing to do with defence against the dark arts.” Ora whispered to Fred and George who were sat on either side of her.

They sniggered with Fred adding, “Oh my God, look at question three!”

Three pairs of eyes stared down at the question and quietly laughed with each other. The question read 'What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?'

“Oh, we're gonna have some fun answering these questions!” George muttered excitedly.

Half an hour later, Lockhart stopped them and collected the quiz papers in and looked through them intently, tutting every now and then.

“It seems some of you have not taken this seriously. I will not read your answers out as I suspect you would want me to, due to the fact that most of them are incredibly rude to me.” Lockhart seemed mad but this did not stop Fred, George and Ora from silently giggling.

The rest of the lesson went fast, this was probably because Lockhart seemed to rush everything so he didn't have to deal with this class any longer.

It was finally time for dinner and the trio walked into the Great Hall only to be intercepted at the entrance by Draco Malfoy and his gang.

“What?” Ora asked, impatiently waiting for whatever insult he was going to throw at them so they could move on.

“Nothing at all, Wrenne. I was just going to remind you that I hadn't forgotten over the summer about your little crush. And I plan on making this year hell for you.” He replied sinisterly with Crabbe and Goyle smiling evilly.

“Great, is that all?” She asked, tapping her foot on the ground to show that she didn't have time for this nonsense.

“Yeah, for now.” He laughed as he walked away.

“What is his problem?” Ora turned to Fred and George for an answer as they sat down at the seats of the table, waiting for the food to emerge.

“Well, we already know that he hates muggle-borns so that'll be a major reason as to why he doesn't like you. Of course, the fight between our dads can't have helped the situation.” Fred answered honestly.

Ora thought about this and nodded, before turning on the table, noticing that food had finally filled it.

They ate for what seemed like ages before retiring to the Gryffindor common room to help Ora decide the best way to tell Snape that she knew about everything. Ora was beginning to lose hope that she would ever find a good way to tell him. Perhaps there wasn't a good, easy way, she may just have to tell him the difficult way.

_There's no way out of this dark place. No hope, no future._

“Right, I'm going to bed and hoping I wake up tomorrow and Snape's suddenly a mind reader and knows that I know and is absolutely okay with it.” Ora rattled on, until her thoughts and sentences were cut short by Fred hugging her once again to attempt to soothe her mind of all this Snape stuff..

_I know I can't be free. But I can't see another way._

“Wow, two hugs in one day! Is this becoming a hug-a-day thing?” Ora asked with a giggle and a blush.

Fred pulled away and looked at Ora, while George was attempting to look like he was focusing on something else.

“It can be if you want.” Fred looked down at this, suddenly becoming aware of himself and what he was saying.

Ora smiled and slightly nodded to show that she would not argue against this idea. Fred did the same and George broke up the awkwardness by saying goodnight to Ora and Fred and disappearing upstairs.

“I'm going up too. Goodnight, Fred. And thank you.” And with this, Ora turned and went up to her room, sharing what just happened with her room-mates who loved hearing the gossip.

Before drifting to sleep, thoughts of the hugs Ora and Fred had shared entered her head. These happy thoughts quickly left her head though when it dawned on her that there was no other way for it, Ora would have to just tell Snape the truth sooner rather than later. And unfortunately, sooner was tomorrow.

_I can't face another day._


	10. Friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Ora and Draco put everything that has been said aside and finally become friends?

Chapter Ten - 

Song for the chapter – Little Things by Son Of Dork

 

The next few days had been uninteresting to Ora and nothing had seemed to happen that grabbed her attention. Of course, that was to change today as the Gryffindor quidditch team began practice again for the year and Ora loved watching quidditch, whether it was an actual game or just practising. If it wasn't for her definite non-athletic personality, she would've tried out for the wizarding sport in second year.

Fred, George and Ora were walking out onto the quidditch pitch so the twins could begin practice whilst Ora sat at the side, in the stands, watching.

As they walked, they were reminiscing about the time in the summer after their first year when they had tried to get Ora to be more sporty by teaching her the rules of quidditch and having a friendly game in their back-garden. Needless to say, it did not go well. At one point, Ora fell off her broom attempting to save the quaffle from going through the makeshift goal, at which point Fred and George both had to race to the ground to catch her before she hit the floor.

Fred had loved that summer as it was the first time he had fully realised that he had a crush on Ora. And thinking back on it now, he looked at Ora and realised how much he loved her by this point.

_It's summer, everybody's out and you're right over there._

“Have fun guys!” Ora shouted to Fred and George as they walked over to the group of the Gryffindor quidditch players as Ora walked the opposite way, to the stands to get a good view of their practice.

When Ora settled in a seat, with a few other people also sat around either watching the game or catching up on work from their first week back, she stared down at the players, waiting for them to begin.

About fifteen minutes after they had set off from the ground and had begun their practice, Ora remembered some homework that professor Snape had set them the day before. And not wanting to cause more friction between them than there would already be when she told him everything she knew, she decided it was best to get the work out of the way. So, she pulled out the work from her bag, with a quill and ink to go with it and started writing on some parchment.

Every now and then, Fred would look over to her and stare for a little bit, just appreciating the little things that she did when she was doing everyday tasks. For instance, this time when he looked over, she had her potions homework out and was twirling her hair around her quill whilst thinking what to write.

_I_ _'m_ _staring while you play around with that pencil in your hair._

At that point, Ora looked up to check on their progress during the game and noticed Fred looking at her and she blushed and waved.

Before Fred could come to his senses to continue flying, Wood and the rest of the Gryffindor team had flown over to him and they were talking intensely as looked down at the ground. Noticing this, Ora also looked down to see what they were all staring at and saw the nuisance that had caught their eyes – the Slytherin team were now walking onto the pitch, therefore disturbing the Gryffindor's practice.

Ora saw the team fly down to the ground, and so she did the same by walking down the steps of the stand she was sat in and up to the unwelcome group.

“What's happening?” She asked Fred.

“I don't know, they've just come and interrupted practice!” He answered.

He couldn't say anything more as they heard Flint giving a reason for there presence on the pitch.

“Ah, but I've got a specially signed note here from professor Snape. I, professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the quidditch field owing to the need to train their new seeker.”

Ora looked around, confused by this revelation and saw many faces sharing the same look.

Wood now cut in, “You've got a new seeker? Where?”

And with this, an answer was given by the fact that Draco Malfoy emerged from the crowd of Slytherins.

There was then basically an explanation as to why Malfoy was on the team, his father had bought his son's way in with new broomsticks for the entire group.

Flint's gloating was cut off by Ron and Hermione's entrance to the group.

“What's happening? Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?” Ron asked with disgust as he looked over at Malfoy.

A few unpleasant words were shared between Ron and Malfoy before Hermione had clearly had enough of it and distracted their conversation by saying, “At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent.”

Malfoy no longer looked pleased to be gloating about his new broom thanks to Hermione's quip, though Ora suspected that he would not let that insult go unretaliated.

Malfoy turned on Hermione, “No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood.”

At these words, everyone from the Gryffindor team, including Ora and Ron launched forward to either condemn them with words or actions. Fred and George chose actions and had to be held back by the rest of the team so they didn't cause more trouble for themselves by injuring another player.

It looked like Ron was not taking any of it either as he pulled his wand out from his robes and blasted a hex at Malfoy.

However, thanks to his wand being broken from the escapade with the Whomping Willow (or that's what Ora had heard, anyway), the hex blasted back onto Ron instead of hitting Malfoy and as everyone ran over to him to make sure he was okay, he began throwing up slugs.

The Slytherins were laughing loudly and Malfoy could be heard shouting obscene things in Ron's direction as he was carted off by Harry and Hermione to Hagrid's hut in attempt to get a cure for it.

When Ron was out of earshot, Malfoy clearly felt there was no point in continuing to insult him, Hermione or Harry anymore and so he turned his attention onto Fred and George as they were still being held back by Wood and he found this funny.

“I'm not surprised that wand backfired, hasn't it be owned by all forty five of the Weasley children?” Malfoy sniggered along with the rest of the Slytherin team.

“And how many children did your parents have, Malfoy? Just the one I'm guessing, considering the fact that they probably didn't want to have anymore spiteful, turd-eating, dip-shits for offspring.” Ora responded tactfully, knowing that if someone said something, it may stop Fred and George from pouncing on him then and there.

This seemed to have put Malfoy out slightly as he stuttered before he said, “Shut up, Wrenne.” Seemingly not being able to find a better insult than 'shut up' but then turning his attention onto the Weasley twins again, “Pathetic. Needing a girl to fight your battles. What's the matter? Feeling too ashamed of your family to stand up to me yourselves?”

Malfoy was only trying to provoke them more as he could clearly see that if they weren't being held back, Fred and George would've murdered him by now.

“Let me go, Oliver!” Fred stifled multiple swears as he struggled against Oliver.

At this sight, Draco laughed loudly once again, “Aw, poor Weasleys, and I mean that in the sense that you're being held back by Wood and, of course, the fact that you can't even afford one chocolate frog on the train to split between the five of you.”

Malfoy was going too far for Ora's liking and she hated hearing any kind of insults about the twins and the Weasley family. They were the best family she had ever met and she couldn't imagine that she would've got through the first three years of Hogwarts without Fred and George and Mrs Weasley's homemade cakes and jumpers.

She looked around and noticed that no one was holding her back and she sensed an opportunity to get back at Malfoy for all the times he had humiliated the Weasleys and her. She often hit back with a witty comeback or turned the other cheek, but, loyal to a fault as Ora was, she couldn't stand hearing these insults being thrown at them anymore and plus, he had now called one of her friends a mudblood.

She marched towards Malfoy who was being protected from being hit by Fred and George but, luckily for Ora, no one was blocking his other side, and so she raced forward and kicked Draco right between the legs and into the balls.

Immediately after, she felt shocked and horrified in herself that she had done that. But it did not take many seconds until this feeling faded away and she instead felt incredibly happy and proud of herself for finally doing what she had wanted to do since she first met Draco Malfoy.

Oliver, Katie, Alicia and Angelina abruptly stopped holding Fred and George back, out of shock and because they correctly assumed that they wouldn't attempt to do anything now.

Draco fell onto the floor, grabbing his crotch and crying in agony, whilst not one of the Gryffindors felt even a smidgen of sympathy for him.

However, they did feel sympathy for Ora as they saw McGonagall and Snape rounding the corner and heading straight towards the commotion.

Regret crossed Ora's face for a second before deciding that no matter the punishment she would get, it would definitely be worth it.

“What is happening here?” McGonagall asked and then turned to Ora, “Wrenne, explain!”

“Erm, well, you see.” Ora began before everyone else's voices drowned out whatever she was saying to give different accounts of what happened.

“Quiet!” McGonagall said loudly, “Wrenne, Malfoy, come with me.”

And with that, McGonagall and Snape lead the way to McGonagall's office to discuss what had happened. When they stepped into the room, the professors stood behind the desk and they motioned for Ora and Draco to sit at the seats in front of them and so they did.

“Miss Wrenne, do you care to explain what went on?” Snape looked at Ora and questioned.

“I may or may not have… kicked Malfoy.” Ora trailed off, looking down at the ground and suddenly feeling bad about the situation.

McGonagall now looked angry and disappointed at the same time at a member of her house acting in such a way, “And what warranted that, might I ask?!”

“He was insulting-” Ora cut herself off by stopping to think that she could've just turned the other cheek. She has will-power, so why didn't she use it to restrain herself against those obvious provocations? And instead of continuing her non-guilty plea, she changed what she was saying, “Nothing warranted it, professor. I just lost it.”

Draco turned his shocked face to look at her before turning to look at McGonagall and saying, “I can't let you take all the blame, Wrenne.” Ora looked at Draco with questioning eyes, to show that she wasn't sure what he was doing, “I provoked her.”

Ora looked at him with a shocked expression. Why was he doing this? He could get away with all the insults he had said if he would just shut up. Malfoy noticed her reaction and looked sad for a moment, thinking to himself that Ora clearly had that bad a view on Draco that she was shocked that he had told the truth. He knew she would never think of him as anything more than one of the bullies.

_It's sad, in your eyes, I'm just one of the guys._

“Even so, that is not a good enough reason for physical violence.” McGonagall replied.

“But, it is, professor. I wouldn't have been able to hold back if someone talked to me like that either.” Draco defended Ora's decision to kick him which Ora thought was odd.

“Pray tell, Mr. Malfoy, what was it exactly that you said?” Snape asked Draco.

“I called her friend, Granger, a mudblood. And I insulted the Weasleys. I was deliberately trying to get them all into trouble by getting them to react.” Malfoy answered, truthfully.

“Very well. Wrenne, you will be punished but not expelled for this incident since Malfoy is taking some of the blame. You will have detention Monday to Friday at 5pm with me.” McGonagall gave out her punishment to Ora.

“Professor McGonagall, I wonder if you would mind if I took the detentions instead? After all, it was a Slytherin that was injured during this confrontation.” Snape asked McGonagall.

She did not have any objections to this and so Ora had detentions everyday next week from Monday through to Friday with her father.

They were both dismissed and after the whole débâcle, they were thankful that it was time for dinner and so they walked in silence side by side to the Great Hall.

Stopping outside of the double doored entrance to the Hall, Ora got Draco's attention by turning to him and saying, “Erm, I not saying you didn't deserve that!” Ora said defensively before continuing quieter than before, “But… thank you. I would've surely been expelled without your help. So, yeah… thanks.” Ora's cheeks turned a bright red at the fact that she had just genuinely thanked Draco Malfoy for something.

“Yeah, well, like I said to the professors, it wasn't your fault. I egged you on.” Draco had the exact same expression on his face.

“How is your, erm, area?” Ora questioned, with actual concern in her voice.

Draco laughed at the way she had worded it and answered, “It's fine, thank you. This is surprisingly not the first time I've been kicked in my 'area' so its not too bad.”

Ora joined in with Draco's laughter at this and they decided it was time for them both to head into the Great Hall and back to their respective tables.

_I'm so into you, you don't have a clue. There's nothing you can do to stop me now._

As Ora sat down between Fred and George, many Gryffindors surrounded her and began asking questions about whether the rumours were true.

“Is it true you kicked him?”

“Is it true you punched him in the face so hard, five of his teeth fell out?”

“Is it true you tore his testicles off?” Ora found this outrageous rumour particularly funny.

When the questions had died down, she told them what had actually happened but kept what had happened in McGonagall's office to herself until she would be able to tell Fred and George in private.

“We're so proud of you, Ora!” Fred and George shouted together.

“Someone finally gave him what for!” Lee patted her back in congratulations.

Ora got a few more 'congratulations' before everyone finally sank into their seats to eat.

Looking around at everyone distracted in their own conversations now and in the food in front of them, Ora decided it was safe to talk to Fred and George without anyone overhearing now.

She told them the exchange that her, Draco, McGonagall and Snape had had and then the further conversation she had with Malfoy when they were walking to the Great Hall.

“He actually told the truth?” George asked.

Fred looked slightly jealous, before he wiped it off his face and said, “That's a bit suspicious though, isn't it? I mean, what does he get from that?”

“I don't know but I'm not too bothered if there's an ulterior motive at the minute. I'm just thankful that I've got away with only a week's detention instead of expulsion!” Ora answered, relieved that she wasn't expelled as she pushed her hair behind one of her ears which Fred had noticed she seemed to do a lot and he thought was very cute.

_You got me falling, through noticing those little things you do._

With nothing more to say on the answer, they went back to eating and discussing quidditch until it was time to go to the common room.

When they got there, they sat in their usual space and let out sighs after a long day.

“I'm shattered, quidditch practice has completely worn me out.” George said.

Ora laughed and said, “You've probably got out of shape since the last time you practised.”

“How dare you?! We practiced through the holidays!” George replied to this insinuation.

Ora giggled at this and looked to Fred who hadn't said anything but was staring intently at her.

_Putting a hold right over me._

“You okay, Fred?” Ora asked him concernedly.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, thanks.” He replied, snapping out of his stare.

“Ora, you know what you'll be able to do in those detentions?” George asked, changing the subject for his brother to come to his senses.

“What?” Ora asked even though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

“Tell your father everything your mum told you.” Fred now added, having recovered from his intent stare at Ora and knowing exactly what his brother was going to say.

Ora groaned at the thought of it but silently agreed by nodding to them.

They continued talking for a while until Fred said he was too tired and so went up to bed, hoping of dreams of Ora to spring to his head.

_Funny as it seems, you make me dream. Doing the little things, those little things you do._


	11. Snape Finds Out

Chapter Eleven –Snape Finds Out

Song for the chapter – Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA/Version From Mamma Mia

 

It was Monday morning and Ora woke feeling dreadful as the thought of her first detention with Snape loomed on her for later that day. However, first she had breakfast and then a full day of lessons to look forward to.

“Looking forward to detention tonight, Ora?” Fred asked Ora as they sat down at the Gryffindor table ready to munch on cereal, toast, porridge or anything Hogwarts were offering that day.

“Oh yeah, can't wait for it.” Ora answered sarcastically whilst reaching over George to grab a bread roll.

“It won't be too bad. Besides, if you tell Snape early on that you know everything, he might go easy on you.” George added to the conversation.

“I doubt it.” Ora looked solemn.

At this moment, Draco had walked into the Great Hall and was making his way over to the Gryffindor table and towards Ora. Fred and George noticed this and moved protectively closer to her, in case he was to insult her.

“Morning, Ora.” Draco sort of waved and smiled at her before turning to Fred and George and giving them an evil smirk. Ora replied with a good morning and smiled too. Draco then went to sit down at the Slytherin table and was, surprisingly, sat next to Walt.

“Oh good, maybe Walt's been accepted some more in his house.” Ora said to Fred and George who were still wearing scowls on their faces, with Fred's more harsh than George's.

“What?” Ora asked them, forgetting that the Malfoys and Weasleys were basically mortal enemies.

“Since when were you chummy with Malfoy?” George asked her, his face had now gone back to normal.

“I told you about him sticking up for me with McGonagall and Snape.” Ora replied, confused at his question.

“Yeah but we didn't realise he was your boyfriend now.” Fred said, still looking scornful and jealous.

_I wasn't jealous before we met. Now every man that I see is a potential threat._

“Calm down, Fred, he's just a friend.”

This didn't seem to make things any better as Ron, Neville and Harry, who had been listening in, now turned and looked horrified.

“You're friends with Malfoy?!” Ron asked.

“Kinda.” Ora answered.

“That's ridiculous! You should know better than to get mixed up with his sort!” Ron said more.

“You're as bad as these two.” Ora pointed at Fred and George to show who she was talking about.

Ora heard an audible 'pfft' from Fred and looked at his grumpy face and attempted to stifle her laughter but failed.

“What are you laughing at?!” Fred asked, even grumpier now.

“It's just, you look quite cute when you're pouting.” Ora answered, still giggling.

Fred turned tomato red in the face and quickly changed his facial expression for it to became brighter in response to seeing Ora laugh animatedly.

Things seemed to have settled down after a while, with people either accepting that Ora and Malfoy were now friends or losing interest.

Transfiguration passed rather quickly, as did charms and care of magical creatures. The rest of the lessons seemed to go relatively slower and then the time came for dinner, something that Ora was looking forward to but also dreading since she knew her detention was next.

“How you feeling about your detention, Ora?” Ron asked her while eating everything in his sight.

“Can't wait for it to be over and its not even started yet.” Ora answered, looking upset.

Fred patted her back and reassured her that it would go fine and that she should tell Snape early on in the detention so as to get it over with. She agreed and ate through her worrying.

What seemed like only minutes later but was actually over half an hour later, Ora was making her way to the dungeons to start her week of detentions with professor Snape. She reached Snape's room and knocked on the door and waited for a response.

“Come in.” His voice drawled through the door and met Ora's ears.

Ora opened the creaky, rusty door and saw Snape sitting at his desk, surrounded by a few piles of papers that was in need of marking.

“Take a seat, Miss Wrenne.” Snape said as he pointed to one of the student desks in the classroom.

Ora moved over to the seat and set herself down whilst placing her bag next to the desk.

Snape waved his wand and a long piece of parchment flew from his desk to Ora's and asked her to get her quill and ink out and to write lines.

“What should I write, professor?” Ora asked.

“I think the sentence 'I shouldn't kick people' should do, Miss Wrenne.” Snape looked at her and then back down at his stack of papers with a slight smirk on his face.

Ora couldn't help but smile at this too and began writing lines until Snape had told her to stop when it had turned 9pm.

“You may leave now, Miss Wrenne.”

Ora said nothing and packed her things up and stood up ready to leave before plucking up the courage and moving towards Snape's desk, thinking this would be a good time to tell him about everything.

“Professor, I have something to tell you.” Snape looked up at her and focused all his attention on what she was to say next, assuming it would be that she had possibly found out that she was his daughter.

“Go on, Miss Wrenne.” Ora could've swore she saw a glimmer of hope cross Snape's face, but if she had, the second she looked back again, it was gone.

“I found out something this summer.” Ora continued, her voice shaking at one point.

“And what was that?” Snape asked in anticipation.

Ora seemed to take a moment before replying with something that Snape did not expect, “I found out you err… that you… nothing!” She blurted out.

Snape looked disappointed for a minute before changing his expression to a look of apathy, “Okay, Miss Wrenne.”

He didn't elaborate further and Ora was thankful for him not asking any questions about her suspicious behaviour. Ora then left the room without anything else being said.

She ran as fast as her legs would take her to attempt to run away from the fact that she had chickened out of telling her father the truth and to get to Fred and George quickly to tell them what had happened.

When she went through the portrait of the Fat Lady, she came face to face with Fred who had told her that George had headed up to bed already.

“What's wrong?” Fred asked, looking concerned.

And Ora proceeded to tell him about how she thought herself a coward due to her not telling Snape what she had planned to.

“Ora, that doesn't make you a coward!” Fred tried to reassure her that she had actually accomplished a lot just by being able to spend that amount of time with him without breaking down.

“I guess. I really just don't want to tell him at all. I don't think the words will come out of my mouth.” Ora responded.

Fred nodded in understanding and then sat down with her and asked her how it was as a detention. Whether Snape had gone easy on her and how boring it was and a few other unimportant things.

They spent the rest of the night discussing that and how much Fred wasn't looking forward to the early starts on the weekend now that quidditch had started up again. After an hour, they decided it was time to go to sleep and they departed ways.

 

The week days had gone past and it had now reached Friday which many were happy about, many apart from the Gryffindor quidditch team who had a practice after lunch when all the team were free to play.

It was a great practice and they all did well and Ora managed to get some work done between watching them play as well so it was good all round. Once she had met up with them outside the changing rooms, they walked a small distance before deciding it would be the perfect time to hang around and spy on the Slytherin team's practice since they were just heading into the same changing rooms that the twins had walked out of only minutes earlier.

“This should be interesting.” Fred said.

“We need to scope them out. Make sure their new seeker isn't too good.” George added.

Ora decided not to add anything to this conversation since she rather hoped that Draco was good, she didn't want him to be kicked off the team if he wasn't.

They just stood and watched for a while without saying much and it wasn't long into the practice that Draco had caught the snitch. Of course, he wasn't faster than Harry in catching it but Ora was sure the nimbus two thousand and ones would help with that when it came to playing an actual game.

“He's pretty good, isn't he?” Ora asked them, though she wasn't really expecting an answer.

Fred looked at her as though she had grown three heads and then looked incredibly jealous.

“He's not better than Harry though, is he? He's not better than the rest of the Gryffindor team, right?” He seemed to ask for reassurance of his quidditch skills and for reassurance that she wasn't too impressed with Draco and she didn't think he was better than Fred.

_And I'm possessive, it isn't nice. You've heard me saying that smoking was my only vice._

“Well no, obviously the Gryffindor team are better.” Ora answered nonchalantly.

George knew she hadn't realised the jealousy behind Fred's questions and assumed it was just because he was sensitive about the Gryffindor's quidditch performance. He decided to hint a little more to try to make it more obvious to Ora and help his brother out a little, “Fred's little finger is better at quidditch than Draco. Isn't that right, Ora?”

“Come on, he's not that bad!” Ora responded with her hands on her hips, protesting George's question.

Fred looked more jealous if that was even possible. Ora glanced at George and noticed that he was trying to get her attention through facial expressions. She looked questioningly at him to which he replied with anexpression that Ora was confused at.

“Fred, can you do me a favour? I think I left my bat in the changing room, could you get it for me?” George asked.

Fred was too riled up to question why he couldn't get it himself and so stormed off towards the changing room.

George turned to Ora and said, “Are you blind?”

“What do you mean” Ora looked innocent, she didn't realise what saying those things might have meant to Fred.

“I didn't want to be the one to tell you this but its getting ridiculous. Fred said he would tell you last year and didn't end up doing it but I can tell he's getting jealous with what you're saying about Malfoy.” George responded.

“Are you being serious? Is this all about quidditch. He knows I think he's better than Draco at quidditch.”

George let out a huge, frustrated sigh and said, “Oh my God, Ora. Do you honestly not see it?”

“I didn't realise he was this sensitive about quidditch-” But before she could finish her sentence, George cut in.

“He likes you!” He breathed out rather loudly but luckily no one was around to overhear it. “He really likes you.” He repeated but more quietly and calmly now.

_But now it isn't true. Now everything is new. And all I've learned has overturned. I beg of you..._

Ora looked shocked as if someone had just slapped her.

“But, how, why? I don't understand.” She said.

“Don't let your lack of self-confidence fool you, Ora. He likes you. A lot. Don't question it, just accept it. And I know you like him too. You all but admitted it to me last year.” At this point, Ora reddened, remembering the moment she asked George whether Fred would ever realise that she liked him. “I'm not asking you to tell him or anything. I just advise that you don't talk so highly of Malfoy. He thinks you like him like Fred likes you so he's getting jealous.” George finished and Ora regained her voice.

“Why hasn't he told me?” She asked.

“Why haven't you told him?” George asked with a smirk on his face, knowing he had stumped Ora and made her think about exactly why she wouldn't tell him now she knew he liked her too.

At that moment, before anything else could be said, Fred wondered over to them, seeming to have calmed down slightly.

“Sorry George, I couldn't find your bat.” Fred turned to his brother as he said this.

“What? Oh right, yeah, sorry it must be in my bag after all.” George replied.

Fred looked a little annoyed at this but didn't care enough about the issue to continue thinking about it.

“Anyway, George, what is it I was saying?” Ora asked, looking at George with wide eyes as if to say 'play along'. “Oh yeah, I was saying that Draco's not that great really. Like you said, Fred could beat him with just his little finger!” She laughed at the end of this.

Fred's face lightened a lot at this and turned to Ora and agreed with her.

They then walked inside and went towards the Great Hall for dinner since they had been out there practising since lunch.

There was a moment when they were eating dinner that Ora turned to Fred when he was telling Ron about how he'd managed to send the bludger straight towards Wood before he dodged it and she couldn't help but stare at him and suddenly noticed so many different features of him that she loved. His laugh, for instance, rung through her which felt like a cool breeze you feel on a hot, summers day when you need nothing but a small amount of coolness. But on the other hand, looking into his eyes warmed her up and made her feel like she had butterflies squirming around in her stomach and it felt great.

_Don't go wasting your emotion, lay all your love on me._

For the rest of the meal she could only think about how much of a shame it was that she couldn't tell him then and there that she loved everything about him, even his faults. But she couldn't, people would hear and mock her, especially Lee Jordan. He would find this hilarious.

They finished dinner earlier than usual and well before Ora's detention and so they decided to head outside and sit by the Black Lake before it would get too cold to be able to do so without a hat and scarf on. If anyone had asked her to recall what they had talked about while they sat there later on in the day, she wouldn't have been able to. She wasn't listening too much to whatever it was that they were discussing, she just couldn't keep her eyes of Fred after finding out the new information about him liking her from George.

_It was like shooting a sitting duck. A little small talk, a smile and baby I was stuck._

Ora couldn't remember how long they had sat there for but it seemed like hours. Good, happy, funny hours, though.

She then had the detention coming up afterwards and was dreading it since she would try once again to tell Snape the truth. However, she only had one person on her mind and that was Fred Weasley.

_I still don't know what you've done with me. A grown-up woman should never fall so easily._

She just couldn't stop thinking about him. That was, of course, until, it came time for her detention and she left the place she was sitting after getting a 'good luck' from Fred and George.

_Don't go sharing your devotion. Lay all your love on me._

She walked towards the dungeons and hoped that Snape would allow her to just do what she had done yesterday since it was so easy and didn't require much thought work.

After what seemed like a long trip, she reached his room as she did yesterday and knocked. Hearing Snape say 'come in' again made her open the door and step inside and she asked him if she would be doing the same thing that she had done the night before.

“No, Miss Wrenne. Today, I require you to clean these containers.” As he said this, he pointed towards a pile of dirty glasses that were resting on top of one of the desks.

Ora set off to it straight away, hoping that the quicker she cleaned them, the quicker she could leave and go to her bed to sleep.

Snape had gone back to his desk to sit down and mark more papers while Ora continued cleaning away until an hour into her cleaning when she accidentally dropped one of the glasses and it shattered onto the floor.

Ora turned around and saw that Snape had noticed and she quickly said, “Sorry, professor!” And she began picking pieces of the broken glass up with her hands. Snape then walked over to her and waved his wand for the pile of broken glass to disappear into thin air.

“Thank you!” Ora almost shouted at Snape, shocked at the gesture.

Ora then looked down at her hands and noticed that her right palm was bleeding from one of the pieces of shattered glass that had worked its way into her skin. She attempted to hide it, not wanting Snape to know that she had hurt herself but unluckily for her, he had seen and conjured a cotton bandage from his wand and helped wrap it around her cut hand.

“Thank you.” She said quietly.

Snape simply nodded and walked back to his desk and sat down before saying, “Try to be more careful this time, Miss Wrenne.”

“Sorry, professor. I'll try not to break any more. Don't want you to end up with none left.” Ora answered, looking embarrassed.

“I was meant for you to be careful now you have hurt yourself.” Snape said. Now he looked embarrassed to be showing concern.

This was Ora's way in. If she was ever going to tell him, it needed to be now, when he had actually shown concern for her. But how would she even bring that up? How would she talk about it?

Suddenly, an idea hit her. She didn't have to talk about it, she could sing a song that he would undoubtedly recognise.

Gathering her courage and with her back turned to him as she put the glass down that she was currently washing, she opened her mouth as a way of giving him the truth.

“ **Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I've heard of once, in a lullaby.** ” Ora then heard Snape's ink bottle fall onto the floor; a sign that he had heard Ora singing and knew what it meant.


End file.
